Latest / We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits / 222. Level-Up Your Impact Through Purposeful Marketing + 2022 Nonprofit Marketing Trends You Can’t Ignore - Maria Bryan

Transcript

222. Level-Up Your Impact Through Purposeful Marketing + 2022 Nonprofit Marketing Trends You Can’t Ignore - Maria Bryan · We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits

• 0:01
  Becky Endicott: Hey, I'm John.
• 0:01
  Becky Endicott: And I'm Becky.
• 0:03
  Jonathan McCoy: And this is the we are for good podcast.
• 0:06
  Becky Endicott: Nonprofits are faced with more challenges to accomplish their missions and the growing pressure to do more, raise more and be more for the causes that improve our world.
• 0:15
  Jonathan McCoy: We're here to learn with you from some of the best in the industry, bringing the most innovative ideas, inspirational stories, all to create an impact uprising.
• 0:23
  Becky Endicott: So welcome to the good community. We're nonprofit professionals, philanthropist, world changers and rabid fans who are striving to bring a little more goodness into the world.
• 0:34
  Jonathan McCoy: So let's get started. Hey, Becky,
• 0:37
  Becky Endicott: we're in our happy place. We're talking nonprofit marketing,
• 0:41
  Jonathan McCoy: we're bringing you to our friends today. It's gonna be so fun. You know, we
• 0:45
  Becky Endicott: love to collect people. And we talk about that all the time. We love the way that the expansive nature of the we're for good community is just bringing so many hardwired individuals and organizations into our myths. But you know, at the at the most basic form, we're marketers disguised as fundraisers. And when we meet people who are so sharp and impactful in the way that they direct and strategize purposeful marketing, we just have to like sit in their aura and just soak up all of their knowledge. And that is our guests today. We are so honored to have Maria Bryan on the show today. And so she's going to be talking about how to level up your impact through purposeful marketing. We're also going to talk about just some 2022 nonprofit marketing trends that you can ignore. And let me just give you a little background on Maria because she is incredibly humble. But her background is wonderful. She has this incredible nonprofit marketing strategist background, and she aligns with people that are purpose driven. And I love how you pour into the impact of that and your mission. So thank you for hardwiring strategies with empathy. And I just like the way that you amplify missions and message Maria came into pro and she was teaching this incredible workshop and she taught how to plan three months of content in one day. And I'm just telling you, I was taking notes. Julie was rapidly taking notes. And so I just cannot wait for this conversation. Welcome to the show hype mom of two wild toddler girls, we are so excited to learn from you today. Oh,
• 2:21
  Maria Bryan: thank you so much for having me. I feel like you are my absolute favorite. Hi, team.
• 2:26
  Jonathan McCoy: Okay, so we're so delighted that you're here.
• 2:28
  Jonathan McCoy: Maria, would you kind of give our listeners share a little bit of your story? What led you to really hone in and show up deliberately in this space serving marketers and nonprofits?
• 2:37
  Maria Bryan: Yes, so I consider myself in accidental, nonprofit marketer, and a lot of people nonprofit, I'm sure relate to ending in the space accidentally. My educational background is in journalism. And that's really what I thought out to do early in my career was to be a journalist, and I really wanted to work abroad. So I started my career in the Peace Corps. So I joined the Peace Corps right after college and was a public health volunteer.
• 3:05
  Maria Bryan: Of course, it was incredibly meaningful and had a huge impact on me. And when I came home I really struggled with, do I tell the stories? Or do I get in the trenches? Do I stay in the field and do the work I became really drawn to public health and doing the work. And so like a lot of people in their early 20s have that moment where they take a pause from what they studied and think is this really what I want to do. And I ended up finding a position to be communication at a community health center. And I was like, Ah, yes, it exists. So like nonprofit communications and marketing was how I reconciles. Telling stories, but still being in it being in the field not going from, you know, one. One thing to the next is, is it feels like in journalism, but like really helping an organization grow through storytelling. So that was the good news that I found nonprofit communications and marketing.
• 4:07
  Maria Bryan: The big challenge was I had no marketing background so I could tell a story but there is so much more Reno to nonprofit marketing, generally speaking with marketing and fundraising, than being able to tell a good story. And I struggled I really, really struggled with understanding the acronyms you know, I didn't know what a KPI was, or a CTA was. So I am so what happens, I just felt like a huge, huge fraud. I felt like you know, I really struggled with imposter syndrome. And, you know, as a result, I'm really grateful that the, the organization I worked for, allowed me to take as many trainings as I wanted. So and I did I mean every webinar, I could get my hand on any conference, any in person training or digital training. I tell people I had Google and speed dial I just spent years trying to figure out just even the basics of nonprofit marketing. And I tell people in my trainings that my very first marketing plan was like 14 pages long. So it took me a really long time to feel like I belonged in nonprofit and in nonprofit marketing. And within 10 years, I did build very successful digital marketing programs. And some of the largest nonprofit include the largest nonprofit in New York City, I started out in New York.
• 5:32
  Maria Bryan: And it just it took a lot of time, it took a lot of trial and error, and it took a lot of learning. So after about 10 years of being in the field, including Peace Corps, I transitioned to having my own nonprofit consultancy, you mentioned that I have two girls.
• 5:47
  Maria Bryan: So when I started my family, I was ready to have a little bit more, you know, flexibility. And so I took off a year to raise my first daughter, Mia and I started my consultancy, and you know, of course, was able to help people tell their stories and so many different causes, and so many organizations. So there's there's really no going back after being a consultancy.
• 6:07
  Maria Bryan: But one thing about my journey that is so huge that when I moved from the nonprofit space to having my own small business, and suddenly, like all the algorithms were sharing, like small business and for profit resources, my way, I was like, Where were these resources, when I was trying to figure out nonprofit marketing, it would have taken me months what took me years, I just couldn't believe the disparity and the kinds of and I'm not even talking about very expensive, like even the most basic resources out there, it just seemed like not only was it high quality, but it was holistic, and it was easy to understand it access. So those first few years of my consultancy, I was like, we have to bring to the table, higher quality training and resources and tools to nonprofit leaders, especially those who are here on accident who don't necessarily have the nonprofit training and background or the marketing background or the fundraising background, so many nonprofit leaders and up in this space because of something pivotal that changed their life.
• 7:10
  Maria Bryan: For me, it happened to the Peace Corps, and it just changed their trajectory. But that doesn't mean that they have the training, you know, and their background. So where I am today is just fully committed to give that same experience to nonprofit leaders and marketers and those in communications and fundraising, making sure they have really high quality and accessible training. And I'll have to say that's why I love we are for good pro because you know when you say it's like Netflix for the nonprofit world, like I do feel like you've taken the time and you have this vision to bring really high quality polished training to the nonprofit space. So I do feel like I'm with my people when I'm with oh, we are forget, and I appreciate what you're putting out into the world or nonprofit leaders.
• 7:59
  Jonathan McCoy: Well, thank you for saying that. I mean, I was gonna say like, it just feels like we're such kindred spirits on so many different levels. And I think you know, going growing up through the school of hard knocks of trying to figure it out taught you so much of like what not to do also not just the things to do, you know, and especially for somebody in our field that it's like, there's always so much on our plate, you do have to figure out where to focus and what's going to be moved the needle the most. And so I know today, you know, you're sifting through so much content, you're always reading you're a learner. So I know a lot. Even today, you're still having to boil down what matters the most, you know where to put emphasis. And that's kind of like the tone I'd love to set going into tapping your brain for what are the trends? What are the marketing trends that you're paying attention to? And you know, what matters the most from your perspective of where we should be putting emphasis and learning and growing?
• 8:50
  Maria Bryan: Absolutely. So really what I want for nonprofit leaders is to take the time to invest in technology and best practices, that's going to allow them to work, you know, smarter, not harder to make things just a little bit easier for them. So we'll just touch on a few trends that I see that have been kind of building over the past few years. But that will continue of course in 2022 that are both just trends as a result of what's going on in the world.
• 9:53
  Maria Bryan: But also some exciting things to think about to make your job a little bit easier. And the one thing that I want to discuss is the rise of hybrid and when it comes to events, so whether it is fundraising events or community events, of course, we had this huge digital shift the past few years, and there's going to be people, especially with just all these new variants of the Coronavirus are still going to want to go digital and then there's people that are have such term fatigue and they're dying to do things in person. So we're really going to see an increase in hybrid being able to either do things digitally or in person So how can you make that experience accessible to both camps, so pay attention to the kinds of tech out there that's going to allow for people to take part in your fundraising, or again in the services that you provide in a way that they feel most comfortable. The second trend is to prioritize video and hopefully by now we're all prioritizing videos. So first of all, video is such a powerful way to pull it heartstrings and convey a story. I mean, that goes without saying, right, but also the algorithms love video.
• 11:06
  Maria Bryan: So you know, you have something like tick tock that is completely video based. And you see how that changed Instagram in that change Facebook, so it is worth I think having less content, but more valuable content. So if it's the difference between five more stagnant posts in one video, spend the time creating the videos, whether that's, you know, something that you're putting in your feed, or you're working on reels and Instagram, or maybe you're experimenting with Tik Tok take the time to to look into making video a regular part of your content strategy.
• 11:43
  Maria Bryan: The third one is my favorite.
• 11:43
  Maria Bryan: And that's the rise of AI tools such as artificial intelligence.
• 11:47
  Maria Bryan: And by the rise, I mean, it's becoming more affordable and accessible. And it is accessible for nonprofits to use artificial intelligence. But also just to be more, you know, thoughtful and strategic about what you're doing when we have these AI tools. But like a lot of donor CRMs, you know, have AI in them, you know, chat bots are something to look into, which are becoming more order, portable and accessible also. So if you're looking to free up some time to be a little bit more thoughtful about your communications, and fundraising, look into the AI tools that are out there. The next one is to optimize mobile. Fortunately, so many website platforms automatically go mobile, but not all do. So 50% of traffic to nonprofits, sites were through mobile. So not only make sure that you look on mobile, but that donating on mobile is incredibly easy. So we could do a whole podcast on this, like even just things like creating buttons instead of links, like there are a number of things that you can do to make the mobile experience easier. So make sure that you audit your website and make sure that it is optimized for mobile. My fifth trend that's on my radar is appealing to Gen Z, Gen Z is so committed to causes that they care about and they're likely to stick to a cause, or you know, their lifetime. And they're ready, they're ready to give to causes, I think the two best ways to appeal to Gen Z. One is just to be authentic. And the second is make sure that you're not just stuck, you know, just using Facebook and LinkedIn, if you are ready to reach Gen Z, do consider using the platforms they are. And that's not just social media, but also considered, you know, text, do the research on understanding Gen Z, what they love, what motivates them, and what communication platforms they're hanging out on
• 13:41
  Jonathan McCoy: are higher Gen Z, you know, two and higher, you know, and I'm like, actually listen to them. Because I think it's interesting. A lot of times we would bring on interns, and if you diminish the voice, if you bring on an intern to do like filing work or something, you're missing that opportunity to recognize that they have so much better perspective into their age demographic. I think if this even Julie on our team, like completely keeps us in check all the time of what would land what would resonate and just kind of what even makes sense to you even just a few gap of years difference between all of us. And so, I just think that that's low hanging fruit, you know, for sure.
• 14:21
  Maria Bryan: I mean, yeah, bring on Gen Z onto your staff and listen to them, just love Gen Z.
• 14:24
  Maria Bryan: So my last one is what I was saying was something that I shout to the rooftops and that's having an email marketing strategy. If you are relying on social media, for your campaigns and for any of your CTAs which is calls to actions you are missing out and I'm talking to nonprofit consultants listening, I'm talking to nonprofit marketing communications, you know, lists anyone who's listening you really really now's the time to have an email list year after year. Study after study shows that people are more likely to act on email address than on almost any other asked. Email is a platform that you need to have you do not own social media, you do not own those platforms. It's going to be really hard to rely on people to visit your website and your email is where you're reaching people where they are. So not only start your email list, but be thoughtful about it. segment your list. Be thoughtful about not you know if you're just sending out a rundown newsletter of all the things that you've been doing and you're not using email really as strategically as you should right now. So be thinking about ways to like really up your email marketing game, it's really going to be a game changer for campaign in 2022.
• 15:48
  Jonathan McCoy: Hey, friends, this episode is presented by virtuous and they just happen to be one of our favorite companies. Let me tell you why.
• 15:53
  Jonathan McCoy: You know, we believe everyone matters. And we've witnessed the greatest philanthropic movements happen when you see and activate donors at every level. And here's the thing, virtuous created a fundraising platform to help you do just that. It's much more than nonprofit CRM.
• 16:09
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• 16:59
  Jonathan McCoy: Imagine being able to work through your challenges in real time. That's the power of pro.
• 17:05
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• 17:10
  Jonathan McCoy: Be the Pro and get started today with a 14 day free trial, head over to we're for good pro.com/free. Okay, let's get back to this amazing conversation.
• 17:23
  Becky Endicott: I have to come in here and just like grab the listener, pull them into my arms and embrace them and say, These tips are so incredible. But I don't want you to feel overwhelmed that you have to do them all. You need to take this elephant one bite at a time. And we need to think about what's the most impactful thing that can do the most good right now I think every single one of these strategies is outstanding. We just saw the new stat yesterday that said in 2019, one in 25 people were virtual, and now it's one in seven. So that alone shows the shift of the entire world to digital. And so I love the point about going virtual, finding ways to get digital to build global community. But I would just say pick one of these to start out with. And then as it starts to have success layered on because all of these are absolutely imperative at some point to create a global giving audience. Maria, you are so smart. And so on top of what is happening right now. And I really hope that people listen to this and figure out a strategy of implementation that doesn't have to do all these things at once. But man, all of them are super sound loving it.
• 18:36
  Becky Endicott: Yeah. And
• 18:37
  Maria Bryan: I would even add to that, because this is such important advice. Don't feel sick to your stomach when you hear all these trends. And if it just feels really overwhelming, you know, one thing that I really want for you to do is to think about your broader goals, not just your marketing goals, but your broader goals. Which one of these tactics is bringing you closer to your goal, it's not just about being the most up to date and jumping on the trends. It's about bringing you from A to B moving the needle.
• 19:02
  Maria Bryan: So which one of these is going to help you move the needle? And I absolutely agree, choose one, just choose one that you want to invest in this year and go all in.
• 19:12
  Jonathan McCoy: I think that's really sage. And I think it's also evolved to think about marketing as an extension of your impact that you know, there is the tangible results that you're trying to create through your mission. But how can you kind of nurture your audience and bring them closer to the problem closer to understanding the pain closer to realizing how their gift could plug in? And I think that's the power of you know, really getting these aligned and getting an army of supporters and believers. So could you talk about that? I mean, how can people level up their impact through really purposeful marketing this year?
• 19:46
  Maria Bryan: Well, I feel like Becky just laid the foundation for what I believe is purpose driven marketing. And this again, goes back to my 14 page marketing plan, which now I encourage all of my students to create a one page marketing plan. I really want to simplify nonprofit marketing for people so that they are not dealing with this fraud and an imposter syndrome because when you feel like things are attainable, and you're able to celebrate those wins, it's much easier to feel successful than what you're doing. And your most focused efforts will be your most successful effort. So it's not about doing as much as you can.
• 20:25
  Maria Bryan: It's about having a very, very few things that are really, really going to help you reach specific goals that you have laid out for yourself. And if you're working in a larger organization, go to the leadership of your organization and really get a sense of what the overall goals are for your organization. Because I feel like marketing can be so siloed.
• 20:45
  Maria Bryan: So the framework that I teach is that there's really three things that you need to invest in and focus in, in order to market on purpose. The first is to have a deep understanding of your audience that we're talking about Gen Z, whoever your audience is, that might be your donors, if that's really your focus, and might be those that you serve, and might be the volunteers that that you want to increase that year. But when you take the time to understand your audience's goals, what motivates them what their challenges are, and how you come in to be part of that motivation to you know, what, what brings them purpose, and to even solve their challenges if you're trying to reach Gen Z and, and you're struggling to reach them. And maybe that's because you're on the wrong platforms, you're on the wrong channel. So just as as a first step, to have a deep understanding of who your audience is really going to set you up for success. And the second is having goals and objectives. And I really love walking people through having very strategic goals and objectives that can be something like brand awareness, if you're young in your organization, if you're further along, it might just be improving, improving the client experience are the people that you that you're serving.
• 22:05
  Maria Bryan: And that's something that can be supported through marketing. And maybe it is to increase donations or the kinds of ways that you're bringing in income.
• 22:16
  Maria Bryan: And I encourage people to just choose one goal per quarter, you might have a few ways to reach those goals, but have just one goal. And make sure that you're tracking them, making sure that you're tracking them in a meaningful way. And the third thing that I walk my students through is content planning. So whether you're content planning your day to day marketing, or your content planning for a really specific campaign, it is crucial to the success of marketing, but you are taking the time to be intentional about what you're putting out into the world. And you're giving your your yourself space to create quality content. That means you're not waking up in the morning and trying to push something out. You're not coming up with an email in the middle of a fundraising campaign. You already have this content done and approved, you're using media that's engaging and make sense, you're going on platforms that you know are going to reach the audience that you've decided, you know, that you want to reach, and all of this content is going to help you reach these goals and objectives.
• 23:21
  Jonathan McCoy: So I mean, I love the pre planning of campaign messages, I think speaks to so you can focus on the things that really matter and moving the needle. However, how do you bake in like being responsive at the same time of like, Let's see your campaigns, you know, something's happened or something's moving slow. Or maybe it's blowing through the roof, like, what's how do you kind of auto correct that as you go?
• 23:43
  Maria Bryan: Yeah, yeah, you know, people plan, like, a year's worth of content, um, in advance. But to answer your question, I think that's why it's so important to plan content in advance, because it leaves room for you to switch gears, it's not wasted time to have created that content, you can repurpose that content into picking up the phone and making phone calls, or into using a different platform. It's never wasted. But if you're writing your content and creating your your assets, as you go, you are not going to have the emotional energy and the bandwidth to even think about how to change gears.
• 24:20
  Maria Bryan: So it's going to give you so much breathing room so much space, when you plan your content ahead to make those changes. Now cultural things happen. pandemics happen, things happen in the news. So again, I don't think that's wasted content. When it comes to day to day content. I do think of course, you want to make sure you're paying attention to the trends, that you're you're speaking to what's happening in the news. But when you're planning, let's just say that you are planning, you want to post eight things in a given month, maybe you're just planning six in advance to leave room for these timely things.
• 24:54
  Maria Bryan: And it's okay if you have to end up maybe putting some content on the back burner. But to me, it's never a waste of time to plan content ahead.
• 25:07
  Becky Endicott: I agree with you. And I want to give a little plug for content planning and why I think it's so great. It's because if you can forecast what you're saying it can pull it can give you a check of how many times are we asking for something how many times are we thanking somebody I mean, we talk about the ass to thank ratio and I think the beauty and having that kind of a mindset is it brings the whole To together, it's not just falling on the marketers, shoulders of okay, this is what we're talking about. And I'm kind of gathering everything. No, it's like fundraisers, speak into this campaign and tell us why it's important. Give us a story of somebody who's impacted donor relations. What are your targets? How Are we recognizing people? How are we loving on them. And I think if you're feeling overwhelmed by this, as I do, when I go into content planning, I would say batching is such a good hack for content planning. And when we're freed up to do those kinds of things, we can be more creative, we can be more intentional, and it allows us to pivot into things that are of now you know, if something happens and changes, we want to be relevant,
• 26:18
  Jonathan McCoy: and can I also I love that we're just gonna keep piggybacking on each other. As you get that plate to spin.
• 26:24
  Jonathan McCoy: Like, then that's how you can go back and add these layers, you know, and that's why I think Anna Maria preaches this, just like getting those systems in place. And we feel this in our business, too. Once those are going, then that's how you can get your hands and all these different trends and activate because you've overtime, built the habits, and you've built the infrastructure to be able to do it all and not burn everybody out. I'm in the process, right.
• 26:44
  Jonathan McCoy: So I think that's really key.
• 26:48
  Maria Bryan: I just wanted to give a real life example about the power of content planning.
• 26:51
  Maria Bryan: So I'm also the marketing and fundraising director of girls sitting girls, which is an amazing San Francisco based organization that teaches girls to be leaders through soccer.
• 27:02
  Maria Bryan: And I came in right in the tail end of a fundraiser that they were doing, and there was no system in place for content planning. When I tell you, this isn't any one person's fault, but there was a mistake. And every email that went out, there was a link broken, or and it was because they were writing, they were creating the campaign as they were going, which honestly, there's so much logistics that goes into a campaign, I totally understand that workflow. Six months later, we were going planning our end of year campaign. And I said, we are not launching this campaign until all of the content is completely done. That's all the communication to our speaking points to our board members, every single email, the landing page, every social media post, of course, we don't have all our auction items. And of course, there's going to be things that's going to come up and we're going to have to make some changes. But I want this content, as much of it done as possible. And God bless my team.
• 28:04
  Maria Bryan: They created this whole campaign in a very short time before we launched. And let me tell you, we had no mistakes. In our email, we told incredible stories, because we just had the space to like really dig in and find some really great stories.
• 28:19
  Maria Bryan: So it wasn't about the campaign, it was about the girls that we were serving, there wasn't this rush to to find something to to post, we had all of the all of it there. And we have taken the time, even before we made the content to say this is the message, this is the call to action. And this is what people get when they donate, this is the cause that they're going to be part of. So the campaign comes. And of course, some things were landing and some things weren't. So I spent hours picking up the phone, calling parents trying to get them to take part, I added an extra board meeting, I would have not had the emotional energy, the actual time to do that. If I was helping and supporting my team and creating the campaign as we go. And it was those little changes that made the difference between the success of our goal.
• 29:17
  Maria Bryan: And again, it's because we we put in the effort to make sure all that content was done. So one I just want to say and this is another plug for Grammarly.
• 29:30
  Maria Bryan: It was correct. I mean, it's something that I call a marketing manic when you're so stressed to get just something out there, especially in the middle of a campaign. It's so easily easy to put in the wrong code for first name, who's done that like everyone does. And it's okay it's okay to have those mistakes, but you are going to drastically reduce these mistakes when you've prepared your content in advance. And even though content is a core part of what I teach content is not the end all be all at are these little things like engagement on social media and direct outreach, and just even internal meetings with your people that make the difference for your goal.
• 30:17
  Jonathan McCoy: And I mean we just talked to Rio Wong who is so brilliant out of New York and she you know, shared like desperation is a stinky perfume, which I love that fries. But I'm like if that's coming through if you're riding in a place of scarcity of stress of that, like people are gonna pick up on that. And that's not what's gonna attract. But if you can, I love creating the creative space, I'm even thinking through the lens of how do we do more of that, you know, for, for our grind that we have here, just what a better creative, more attractive place for the people that you're trying to attract.
• 30:51
  Jonathan McCoy: Like, I love that.
• 30:52
  Becky Endicott: Okay, I want to know about a moment of philanthropy that really changed you. It could be in the Peace Corps, it could be something else, what's your moment of philanthropy.
• 31:01
  Maria Bryan: I had a friend who started a new job. And she said, You know, there's a documentary about it, you should watch it.
• 31:07
  Maria Bryan: It's called very young girls. I watched this documentary, it was about the commercial sex exploitation of young children, just domestic human trafficking.
• 31:14
  Maria Bryan: This is something that we are, it's on our radar, we're talking about it now. 10 years ago, it was not on our radar. I watched this video, this documentary.
• 31:25
  Maria Bryan: And I was just horrified and blown away by what was happening literally, in my own backyard, girls that were near where I went to school and where I would go to the mall. So having a well done story that didn't just talk about the numbers, but you're actually introduced to a few girls who have been exploited sexually for commercial purposes. I, as a results, reached back out to the person who had started this job, she actually started as the development director, and I said, you know, I need to get involved. I ended up being a mentor for these girls for two years. This is every week for two years. In addition to being a mentor, and being a monthly donor, this issue, I became such an advocate for it, I came up in conversation a lot. I felt really like I could champion this, I just educated myself.
• 32:15
  Maria Bryan: And it wasn't just this organization, I just was so gripped by it, that I just was showing up to political events, I was watching it on the news, it just became such a huge part of my life. And it all started with the story. It didn't start with her telling me about her new job because she explained it in words, very similar to what the documentary show. But of course, the documentary was a moving, breathing, depiction of a story. So this is to say that when you are in fundraising, the power of story to change lives, to make people lifelong advocates to bring them in to volunteer and to turn them into monthly donors. It really all traces back to impactful stories, it's not always the numbers. It's not how many people you served or the issue at hand, it's, it's one life that was changed because of your organization can make all the difference. I will say the name of the organization is gems in New York City and their phenomenal organization that works with these girls, it's just so worthwhile to dig in to these stories and take the time to tell these stories. Well, it's going to be what gets people to act,
• 33:30
  Becky Endicott: you just illustrated, every single one of your points from the last 40 minutes, you have literally shown how video and purposeful storytelling literally impacted your life and pulled you into this issue that was not even on your radar, the brand awareness of simply using that video to tell this story in a way that was purposeful in a way that you could actually see these girls and I love just the beauty in it of your journey. And you ended up having two daughters at the end of that. And the way that you're fighting for these young girls is just beautiful alignment. And so a you are you are truly illustrating your points beautifully, and it's not lost on us that this is this is how you find your long term passionate what we call rabid fans. But it's a great story.
• 34:23
  Becky Endicott: And I really appreciate you bringing awareness to this incredible nonprofit, and we'll put it in the show notes to people go check it out.
• 34:28
  Jonathan McCoy: Okay, Maria, it's time to distill all your mantras in your head. All of the advice that you could give it's the question one good thing, what's something you would leave with our community today?
• 34:40
  Maria Bryan: My one good thing is for the nonprofit leaders who came to the space on accident.
• 34:46
  Maria Bryan: And as that you belong here, and you are making this space better for being here,
• 34:54
  Becky Endicott: I feel so seen.
• 34:56
  Jonathan McCoy: And thank you for that. And I think it threads back to your origin story of you know, feeling kind of like on an island you didn't know where to start. You know, whenever you're in that seat, you knew you had the passion but you needed a plan you needed the camaraderie you needed, all those things that you found over time and have put together. So what a cool full circle moment. Would you tell our listeners? How can they connect with you? I know you've put together an amazing training that's dropping really soon and so share all the deets on that and how people can find you.
• 35:23
  Maria Bryan: As like i said i I've really changed the services and how I work with nonprofit leaders and fully focused on training. So I have a week long training program called the Thrive activator, where we dig into this framework, one full session on deeply understanding your audience, one full session on setting goals, and one on on content planning. And this, these aren't just learning sessions, these are very much doing sessions. So there is space to actually put these lessons into action immediately with one to one feedback from me, it all culminates into this fourth section session, which is the activating session where we're actually going to create a fundraiser and a fundraising campaign to gather ready to launch the following Monday. So it's a jam packed week, I asked people to just pause what they're working on pause their marketing BNF. For this one week, not only will you learn the fundamentals of marketing for anything, whether it's brand awareness, or fundraising or an advocacy public health campaign, but then you're going to be putting it into practice immediately, with one to one support with me, and this is a an event that is $300. But I am so fortunate and excited to have a partner who's providing full scholarship for this event. So head to Maria brian.com, and apply for a scholarship for this program. The next dates are February 14, to 18th. And I'll be having them throughout the year. So if you missed this one, or you're listening to this a little bit later, definitely see when the next one is again, my commitment is to provide the highest quality, resources and tools and support so this isn't some free lead magnet to try to get you to hire me for a project this this full stop what I do I just have fully invested in this training into helping marketers that simple frameworks and processes up to you know to expedite what took me 10 years.
• 37:45
  Maria Bryan: It's been
• 37:45
  Jonathan McCoy: so fun. We appreciate you coming on the podcast made my day.
• 37:49
  Julie Confer: Hey, friends, thanks so much for being here.
• 37:51
  Julie Confer: Did you know we create a landing page for each podcast episode with helpful links, freebies and even shareable graphics. Be sure to check it out at the link in this episode's description. You probably hear it in our voices, but we love connecting you with the most innovative people to help you achieve more for your mission than ever before. We'd love for you to join our good community. It's free. And you can think of it as the after party to each podcast episode.
• 38:10
  Julie Confer: You can sign up today at WWE or for good.com backslash Hello, one more thing If you loved what you heard today, would you mind leaving us a podcast rating and review? It means the world to us and your support helps more people find our community.
• 38:21
  Julie Confer: Thanks friends. I'm our producer Julie confer and our theme song is sunray by Remy Boris boom