by Allison Kooser | Apr 8, 2021 | The Intro
Have you ever taken a moment to pause and think about what you do? We’re serious. Stop for a second and just think about it…
(Better yet, grab a piece of paper or a blank document and go with us for a second.)
You’re a nonprofit marketer. What does that mean?
How do you spend your days? What skills do you employ on a regular basis? How would you define the last three tasks you completed? If you had four empty hours to work on whatever you want, what would you choose? What are you best at? How do you explain your job to your grandma?
Maybe you’re a writer or a designer or a strategist. Maybe you’re great at SEO or love dreaming up campaigns or ride hard for analytics. You could be a words person or a graphics person or someone who shapes the big picture. You could be great at asking for money or scared every time you have to make an ask.
But if we had to guess, your answer probably sounds most like “all of the above.”
Today’s nonprofit marketers are required to do it all, which makes defining our jobs nearly impossible.
It also makes completing this exercise all the most important.
You are your own brand champion. It’s up to you to define what makes you awesome.
You are the best expert on your unique skill set. You know what is rolled up into that term nonprofit marketer. And you know best what you’re bringing to the table. Have you spent time defining yourself and your work? Do you know how to answer the question “what do you do” without launching immediately into jargon?
Grab that paper again. Cross out every word that would win you points in buzzword bingo. Then try again. What do you do? What makes you great?
Ok, did you do it? Do you have a draft?
Send it to us.
We want to get to know you, we want to celebrate you, and, most of all, we are genuinely curious how awesome people like you (people who have to wear a million hats every single day) choose to define their work.
We can’t wait to hear what you have to say…
by Allison Kooser | Apr 3, 2021 | Gratitudes
This week, we are thankful for…smart, curious people on TikTok. We have always been big fans of the Wikipedia rabbit hole (you know the one—you start with a simple question and 20 minutes later you are reading about how lettuce grows). Now, we’ve taken our weird curiosities to the next level with TikTok.
There are tons of nerds just like us who are using their social media platforms to share amazing science facts, surprising historical stories, and wild insights about the world and we are HERE FOR IT.
Just this week, we’ve learned that Betsy Ross was born with a full set of teeth, no one knows exactly how eels reproduce, and George Washington was basically accidentally murdered. Shoot us an email at [email protected] and we’ll send you links to some of our favorite creators.
by Allison Kooser | Apr 1, 2021 | The Intro
A few months ago, in that mid-pandemic, I-desperately-need-a-new-hobby panic, one of our team members decided she was going to learn to paint her nails.
For months, she had seen friends and strangers posting on Instagram about this new at-home manicure brand, Olive&June. They weren’t ads—they were recommendations from people she respected and had chosen to follow. She was sold.
A week later, she was the owner of a new manicure kit and posting on her own social media about nail polish—telling her own friends about the merits of the brand. (And this, my friend, is why people pay big bucks to social media influencers…)
We love what our friends love.
We are influenced by their nail polish choices. We choose to eat what other people say is delicious. And when a friend champions a cause, we’re way more likely to care about it, too.
This is what makes peer-to-peer fundraising powerful. And this is why word-of-mouth promotion is still magic.
Lean into your own social influence.
Whether you have thousands of social media followers or simply a few close friends, people are listening to you. They are looking to you for advice, ideas, and recommendations.
So talk about what makes you excited! Tell your friends what is inspiring you or blowing your mind or saving your life right now. And ask them to tell you what they think is awesome, too.
by Allison Kooser | Mar 28, 2021 | Gratitudes
This week, we are thankful for…challenges that help us grow. Listen. Some situations are just plain tough. We struggle and squirm and power through just as much as the next person. (This is rarely/never fun in the moment.) But recently, we’ve tried to take these rough patches as learning opportunities.
We want to come out the other side having learned something new. We want to emerge stronger and more resilient and more prepared for whatever comes next. So here’s to the challenges we’ve conquered and the lessons we’ve learned along the way.
by Allison Kooser | Mar 25, 2021 | The Intro
When we look back over our professional (and personal) lives, we are struck by just how valuable our relationships have been.
There are the people we “officially” worked with for three months who are still valuable mentors to us years later. There are friends who listened to us complain about projects and helped us make difficult decisions about what to do next. There are colleagues we’ve worked alongside for decades and neighbors who might not ever know what a profound impact they have had on us.
Cultivating and maintaining these relationships matters.
You never know where a new connection might lead or when an old friend’s expertise is suddenly essential. (Our not-so-secret trick: stay connected to your former coworkers. It’s the best and expands your social capital…a lot.)
What are you doing to invest in your relationships this week? Who have you been meaning to email or call recently? Who deserves a big pile of gratitude?
Why not drop them a note right now?
Because like it or not, we are shaped and guided by the people around us.
Our lives are better because of the people who have crossed our paths. And our guess is that you would say the same. So let’s keep relationships at the top of our priority list. Yes, because they help us. And yes, because they can be valuable. But mostly because people are awesome and special and absolutely worth celebrating.
