Grow Your Personal Brand & Your Nonprofit

Tony Martignetti
Hello and welcome to Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio, big nonprofit ideas for the other 95%. I'm your aptly named host and the podfather of your favorite hebdomadal podcast. Oh, I'm glad you're with us. I'd suffer the embarrassment of asteatosis if you got under my skin with the idea that you missed this week's show. Here's our associate producer Kate with what's up.

Kate Martignetti
Hey Tony, here's what's coming. Grow your personal brand and your nonprofit. As a nonprofit leader, You can build your personal brand and watch benefits accrue to both you and your organization. With the right messaging, strategy, consistency, and authentic connection, your individual and nonprofit brands coexist, and each sees increased visibility and impact. Emmy Award winner Bofta Yimam, founder of StoryLede, Explains it all on Tony's Take Two.

Tony Martignetti
My moment of vulnerability.

Kate Martignetti
Here is Grow Your Personal Brand and Your Nonprofit.

Tony Martignetti
It's a genuine pleasure to welcome Bofta Yimam to Nonprofit Radio. Bofta is an Emmy and Edward R. Murrow Award-winning journalist and founder of StoryLede. As the first Ethiopian-American newscaster to receive an Emmy, she helps nonprofit founders and thought leaders amplify their stories and boost visibility. Her company is at storylede.com, and Bofta is on LinkedIn, very active there. Welcome to the show, Bofta.

Kate Martignetti
Hey, so good to be here. Thanks for having me, Tony.

Tony Martignetti
It's a pleasure to meet you this way. We do a lot of sharing and commenting, etc., on LinkedIn, but this is, this is much, much better. Much, much.

Bofta Yimam
So much better.

Tony Martignetti
Until we can, until we can have lunch or coffee or drinks. That's right. This is, this is— we're on the path. We're on the path. Yeah. What did you say? By the beach?

Bofta Yimam
I said by the beach. Yeah.

Tony Martignetti
Yeah. Come on down. Yes. Yes. Sounds good. All right. So you have an expertise in Helping people build personal brand, and you encourage nonprofit leaders to build their own personal brand. Mm-hmm. What's the advantage for the person being a thought leader, and what's the advantage for the nonprofit to have a leader who's out as a thought leader in the field?

Bofta Yimam
Right. Well, there's so many advantages. I mean, the list, the list is long, but I'll touch on a few that I think your audience will definitely resonate with. Right, Tony? So, so one, I think there's no doubt that it's a human thing. It's a human connection, right? So when somebody is a thought leader and they're saying why they care about their mission, this is not just another job for them, that they care about this and they tie it back to their own story and they remind the audience on whatever platform you choose to be on about why you really support and care about this mission, why you joined forces behind it, it does something different to the audience. It makes them say, oh, oh, like it wakes them up, right? And look, there are some major nonprofits where, you know, it still behooves them to have a thought leader who's out there. But for the other 95%, I'd say double time because nobody knows your nonprofit enough. you know, that you want them to know about it, or you're trying to break into different sectors or support networks that are gonna send you grants or funders that are going to support you. You know, we had, it just comes to mind, we had someone who was like 0% visibility. And when she started to step out, not only was she invited to speak on stages on behalf of the nonprofit, you know, not only was she then recognized as a thought leader and able to have more impact and more attendees inside of her program, She also got grant funding that she did not expect, right? Because they wanted to support what she was about. And she made it very clear, the connection. And this is where I think most people don't do it, Tony, is they don't connect the dots, right? They're not connecting why they decided to start or join as a leader the organization and continue that story and share different threads of that story. And so one is just massive visibility and impact. So most nonprofit leaders wanna have impact. If you wanna have impact, you gotta stop by hiding yourself and get out there. Start speaking about it. If you're not speaking online, you better be speaking in person, right? You've gotta be doing the things beyond what I see as like your little kind of bubble, right? Beyond the bubble that you and your predecessors probably did. That's how you get more national and global reach. Yeah. Is it, uh, I will say this, and I, and I think it's important to say, is this an overnight thing? No, it's not an overnight thing. And I think that's like very important because a lot of people want the overnight success. This is a building, and you've got to be committed to the build and the consistency.

Tony Martignetti
How do we overcome the concern? Let's, let's take a— I love that you invoked the other 95%. Thank you. There, there are, there are listeners dear, dear to me, dear to Nonprofit Radio. Thank you for, thank you for channeling them. How do we overcome the fear that the CEO of the smaller, mid-sized nonprofit has that people are going to think I'm using the charity, like I'm using the good name that we have in the community for my own personal aggrandizement? And, you know, we do good work, like you were saying, you know, in the bubble, in our community. Right. But now I want to— now Bofta is suggesting I go Like national or, you know, whatever, international through LinkedIn, whatever. But, but I feel like people are going to think I'm just exploiting our nonprofit that I love leading for my own personal, like, ego vanity project,

Bofta Yimam
right?

Tony Martignetti
How do we get people past that?

Bofta Yimam
Yeah, well, we know, we know, right? Valid concerns, but it's a mindset. You know, if you ask anyone who stepped out of visibility, has one person asked you if you are exploiting the nonprofit for your own personal gain by becoming more visible? You'll say, no, actually we got an extra $500,000 or a million-dollar grant that popped out of nowhere. You know, you— no one's saying it. That's the reality, is none of my clients have ever had somebody say it. It's a mindset. It's in your head. It's in your head. Now, I'm not dismissing that. That's why it's a valid concern. I'm not dismissing that somebody would feel that. I think that's a That's a, that's a natural question, you know. And so part of it is having a discussion with yourself and saying— and I put a post about this a while ago— but like, is the vision for this nonprofit or where you want to take it, is it bigger than that discomfort, that fear, that mindset? Because if you can really put that vision and make it huge— oh, we want to raise this much, or we want to impact this many students, or whatever the nonprofit's about— then you start to say What would happen if I played bigger? Me personally, what would happen if I played bigger? And I tell people, well, give it a year, a year and a half. You don't have anything coming through that, like nothing, nobody giving you a little extra, nothing happening, no more students. Okay, then your, your mind was right, you know, fine, right? But that's— it just doesn't happen like that, right? It just doesn't— it doesn't happen.

Tony Martignetti
Have you had a client that that happened to? Like, they worked—

Bofta Yimam
No.

Tony Martignetti
They went at this for a year and a half and then they saw no, no, no change, no change. Yeah.

Bofta Yimam
I've never had that happen because there's just too many avenues that I can't even predict where there will be change. There will be change in how you're pulled into speaking engagements. There'll be, uh, change even with your board, right? Let's not neglect them too in this conversation. You can have that, that question and say, hey, look guys, I'm looking to, to branch out more in visibility, and here are some of the benefits of doing so that I think will bring our nonprofit. And I want to know if I If I could just, you know, what are the chances that you would get behind this? You know, have the conversation and they'll be like, yeah, we've been— and, and mention others you've been seeing who've been doing this, who've been, whether they've been getting coached, consulted, or doing it internally, frankly. Right? I think it's a tough internal job because most your communications team is, is really not assigned to personal branding. So I think that you add something to their plate, but that's another conversation for another day. So, you know, if you ask your board simply, You know, what are the chances you'd support this? I've been seeing others do this and I think there might be something to it. Can we give it a shot for a year, year and a half, see where it takes us? And I guarantee if your board members are— have a pulse of what's happening in the business world, they'll understand that you've got to do personal branding. It's no longer an option. It's, it's just not, you know, thought leaders who are out there are winning. And, and I'll, I'll say this too, their nonprofit may not be as great as yours. Right. Their nonprofit may not be as strong. It may not have as, as, as strong of a system as yours. It may not have as much impact. Guess what? The thought leader is out there, so it kind of doesn't matter. Sometimes it's just who's out there, and I didn't make up the rules, so don't kill me, right? So like, that's just the way it is. They're, they're out there. And if you see successful nonprofits, I'm talking about the ones who started in the past 5 to 8 years. Yeah. When I'm not talking about legacy, because I do think sometimes that's different because they've had all these years of building a support network, okay? And they have changing leadership. But I'm talking about 5 to 8 years, you know, somebody started a nonprofit and who's having massive success. Guarantee they're doing personal branding because you can't do it any other way in this day and age and have massive success. It's just really hard. Yeah.

Tony Martignetti
And isn't a lot of it The messaging too. I mean, when you're out there, you're not just talking about me. Right. You're talking about the community that we work in, whether it's animals or the environment or domestic violence or whatever our cause is. We're putting ourselves out there, but we're also sharing the message of that work and the work that Our nonprofit does in our community, right? I mean, so it's one another. Like another way of overcoming the fear is it's all it's all in just the messaging. Like it's not going to be 100% about me and my family and my children and my animals and my vacations and and my we're not going to be having you pose in front of Bentleys and and on yachts, you know, in no in scantily clad on Caribbean beaches. That's not what that's we're not talking about you becoming an online influencer. We're talking about You're becoming a thought leader in your— within your work and your community, right?

Bofta Yimam
That's right, right, exactly. And, and so what that boils down to is brand awareness. What you're really building is brand awareness, and you, the thought leader, you're an extension of that, right? Uh, so you're an extension of that, that organization. So, so when we say we're stepping out in visibility, that's a good question, Tony, and, and like a thought process that you had, you know, what do we mean? Well, it means that you're talking about your expertise. You're sharing your perspective, right? You're sharing your take on domestic violence, let's say, or your take on whatever nonprofit niche you're in. And you're sharing your perspective in a way. You're sharing information and you're making people care beyond a statistic, right? So you might be telling, like, for example, one LinkedIn post might be talking about your connection to the nonprofit. Mm-hmm. in your childhood and how there's some type of connection and we weave it together. But the next post might be totally talking about the, the students you impact and telling one of their stories, right?

Tony Martignetti
Mm-hmm.

Bofta Yimam
So it's not all about, like you said, it's not all about the thought leader, but it is stepping out and saying, I'm going to be sharing this message 10x and board members and my network that I'm sending my newsletter to in my community. I, I would love for you to get behind this. I'm stepping out. And I think it's a very vulnerable and brave move to say, I'm stepping out this year. I actually think that's a great starter to say, look, I am— most of the nonprofit leaders that I have met are naturally introverted, or they think they are. And that is what they will hold a stake in the ground to for why they haven't stepped out in visibility. And they'll say like, I'm introverted, it's just not my thing. And I'm like, well, how much do you care about, you know, 2xing or 3xing your revenue next year? Because that's what's at stake. Your, your label of introvert— and not dismissing that that's true for them— Yeah. But, but is that going to be the thing when you are looking back at your nonprofit in 15 years and you're thinking, did I have the most impact I could have? Are you okay that you called yourself an introvert to hold yourself back? Because that's all it is, is a label and a mindset. And again, not dismissing that they might be, but is that going to be the thing that holds you back? Like, you— like, I'm asking, like, the thought leaders on your— in your audience to really ask themselves, like, Is that going to be your thing when you look back at your legacy and like, man, I could have really played bigger? And I, and I know people who wait 3 to 5 years before taking that leap, but they're so glad they took the leap because they're like, you know, I, I needed to at least try. I needed to, to attempt to do this because this is actually bigger than me. Like the nonprofit, the mission, everything is bigger than me. So why wouldn't I go out there and at least try to step out in visibility more? And if you're shy about speaking on a stage, well, don't start at the stage, right? Right. Go, go where you're confident. I'm like, okay, if, if writing is easier, go with writing. If video is easier, go with video. Go with the medium that's easier for you and just start. The problem is, is what's really hard, Tony, is the consistency. That's what's hard.

Tony Martignetti
Okay. Well, well, I was gonna ask you about how to start. You, you kind of, yeah, you kind of tease that, like find your, like find your favorite, you know?

Bofta Yimam
Right.

Tony Martignetti
Don't, you don't have to, you don't have to, like you said, go on stage if you're not comfortable going on stage. You might get there. You might get there in 6 months or a year, but, but, all right, so like choose a channel, a method that suits you, right? That, because you're already, you're already busting out of your comfort zone. So you don't have to double, double that with the stage fright that you're going to invoke.

Bofta Yimam
Exactly.

Tony Martignetti
You don't like doing webinars, then, you know, then do audio podcasts. Maybe, maybe that, you know.

Bofta Yimam
That's right.

Tony Martignetti
Or LinkedIn or all the— That's right.

Bofta Yimam
Get your confidence. Exactly. Or do the social media. Do the small thing. Do the small thing to get your confidence going, right? So do the small thing, like take the baby step. And, and as you become more comfortable, you'll say, oh, actually I do want to go on podcasts, or actually I do want to do this. You'll see that. You'll see that natural evolution of self, right? Um, and so, so first thing is, is I would say if you're not on LinkedIn, that's where you want to be. That's where decision makers are. That's where a lot of the people who you're connecting with in person I will not go to an in-person event without taking that pamphlet that everyone throws away and making sure that I connect with every single person who's in that pamphlet. So you've got to be doing some of those, those basic networking steps. We're talking about if you're in-person networking, they're going to forget you if they're not following you, even if you had a great conversation, unless you said, I'm having a meeting with you and you're doing that. But let's be honest, usually that might be 2 people you're walking out with Yeah. Saying that, what about the rest of the room? So, you know, you wanna make sure that you're, you're, you're networking in person, you're, you're taking that list and you're making sure you're asking the event organizer for it, and you're making sure that you're connecting with them on LinkedIn. Now you've got a fan base because you're, you're adding fans, somebody who's gonna support. Not everyone's gonna be a client or a, a donor.

Tony Martignetti
Mm-hmm.

Bofta Yimam
But they might be a fan, right? And we dismiss the fans sometimes, right? So, so allow people who might just support you to be part of your LinkedIn network. So make sure you're doing those simple things. If you are not networking in person right now, like some people might not be, that's okay. Okay, that's fine. Then make sure that you're adding 100 people a week or more on your LinkedIn that are your target audience or going to support you. So you have to be doing something to get new eyeballs. Everyone talks about content and we can get to that. But first things first is, are you, are you actually allowing people to come into your space and are you proactively adding them? So, so I think that's something that's missed, which is why I'm talking about it off top, right?

Tony Martignetti
Yeah. Now this is the consistency that you, you were, you touched on earlier. You have to keep up like a, a drumbeat of your, that's, that's pretty ambitious. I love, I love it. 100,

Bofta Yimam
look,

Tony Martignetti
100 new connect connection requests per, per week.

Bofta Yimam
Right, and you can, and you can mention if you met them in person, Tony, say it like, great meeting you at the conference. Um, I'm sorry we didn't get a chance to connect, but I saw you on LinkedIn. I'd love to support your, your, your content here, right? Just something simple, nothing too aggressive, right? Just something real cool, right? Okay, so, so that's just what I call it.

Tony Martignetti
Let me just, can I just, I just want to drop a little footnote there for, for listeners. All right, so now to do that you're gonna, you're gonna have to invest in the LinkedIn Pro. You know, you're not gonna be able to send that many messages, that many connection requests with the free LinkedIn, which is fine. So, you know, you gotta invest a little money. It's, I don't know, it's like $100 a month or something, or—

Bofta Yimam
Yeah, it might even be less than that. I think it's like $70 a month.

Tony Martignetti
Okay. So yeah, you know, not a big deal, not a big deal, but just alerting you, you know, don't say, oh, I, I reached my 5 a week or whatever, whatever, 5 a month limit.

Bofta Yimam
That's true. Good footnote.

Tony Martignetti
You just gotta just a little, you know, Not to dissuade you, but you gotta put a little money in to be able to send that volume of connection requests. But the value comes as you build your followers or your connections or, you know, you could say fans. Okay, so just, that's a little footnote.

Bofta Yimam
So— Good footnote. And I'll add to that, LinkedIn's always changing things. So don't, we're not gonna be quoted here, right? So like it could be 150 next week.

Tony Martignetti
LinkedIn's always changing things. Yeah, we don't know exactly. I don't know what it is.

Bofta Yimam
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Tony Martignetti
So just throwing it out there. Okay, whatever it is.

Bofta Yimam
Yeah, like the big thing.

Tony Martignetti
That's a valuable channel. We've had other guests, and one within the past week or two, sort of allude, well, explicitly talk a lot about what you just alluded to, that LinkedIn is really underutilized as a connection tool, as a networking tool for nonprofits, for just building relationships.

Bofta Yimam
That's right, that's right, that's right. So that's one thing, you wanna be adding to your network, right? Yeah. Before you're adding to your network, I would make sure your profile, your headline is strong, it's relevant, it's current, it's saying what you do in one sentence. The, the headline gives you a ton of space, as you know too, Tony, right? So I'm referring to the area right below somebody's name. And so a lot of times people put nonprofit leader. Like, let's get specific on who we help and, and, and how we help them. And you can say that in one sentence, right? Um, you know, we help so-and-so so they can, right? So if you really are stuck, you could always use something like that. So they can Have more impact so they can, um, you know, uh, graduate school within 4 years, whatever it might be. So, so they can, as a quick one, quick win, but we wanna get specific. You can put nonprofit leader after that, and I would get more specific. Executive director, founder, be specific on exactly what it is you do. If you have awards, if you're a keynote speaker as well, um, sought after, dynamic, get those adjectives going because you wanna—

Tony Martignetti
Do you wanna, do you wanna If you won an Emmy Award, if you won an Edward R. Murrow Award, sure, put that in.

Bofta Yimam
Yeah, this is not the time to be shy, basically, is what I'm saying. Okay, like, don't be shy in your headline, because when people are looking for you or somebody who helps your organization, they're going inside of the search and they might be putting something in, you know. So they might, they might be putting— I'm just going to go domestic violence because we were talking about that, that's in my brain right now. But like domestic violence leader in Orange County, right? So that might— that— because what if they're doing a conference and they're looking for a speaker? They might say speaker on domestic violence, and they're putting these in the headlines. Do you want your profile to say that so that you pop up? So make sure you're location-specific. Get the basics down, right? And, and if you want to be known as a speaker, make sure you have speaker throughout your entire profile. If you want to be known as a thought leader, say that throughout. So you want keywords throughout. And, and so your mission, whatever the keywords are for your mission, like let's say it's Nonprofit Radio, you would wanna say like, you know, nonprofit radio podcast as many times throughout your entire profile because you wanna be, be sought after maybe for that, right? So it just depends on what you want to be known as, which is a great question is what do you wanna be known as? Think of that as you build your whole LinkedIn profile. I'll start there.

Tony Martignetti
Valuable. So I love the, I love the tactics. I love the tactics, like things we can do. You know, I could start tomorrow.

Bofta Yimam
That's right.

Tony Martignetti
Evaluating what, what do I wanna be known as and does my LinkedIn profile convey that?

Bofta Yimam
That's right. That's right.

Tony Martignetti
Yeah. Throughout. And, and you make the point throughout. Throughout. Not just, not just in your headline.

Bofta Yimam
Yes. Even in your resume. Like everything matters. So even if your resume's, you know, you've been at this organization for 5 years, but what about all the other ones? You know, did you speak there? So if you wanna be known as a speaker, you'd be putting speaker or keynote speaker through those previous, um, jobs that you were in, right? Um, skills, all those things. You just wanna make a robust profile. There's even a media section. If you've been in any media, you could literally add media to it. So just get that profile full before you start adding people, because once people— you're adding people, they're gonna do a quick look at who you are and they're not gonna accept you if they feel like you're not gonna add to their network. So you just wanna show up as your best self is what I tell folks. Like, put your best self, spend a really good amount of time on that LinkedIn profile. Sure, you could have your comms team also kind of kick it back with you if you have a comms team, or hire external, whatever makes sense for you and where you are. But get that profile good, then the next thing you want to do is think about your content. I think it's important that you think of your content in, in themes, right? So maybe you'll do a personal story, and then another one might be a thought leader story. Um, so I, I think it's important not to stay in one thing, um, because then we sound the same, and, and people are attracted to diverse thought there. So when they look at thought leaders They'd like a funny post every once in a while. Like, don't be so serious that you're, you know, it's like we can't, we can't joke with you.

Tony Martignetti
We don't see your personality. If not funny, right, a little, a little humanity, you know, like school, first day of school, uh, you know, a proud graduation moment, uh, you know, maybe it is even vacation because, you know, you're, you're thinking about self-care this week.

Bofta Yimam
Yeah.

Tony Martignetti
But that's— you're right. We would like to— we like to see the humanity in people.

Bofta Yimam
A little personality. Yeah. And a little personality, you know? So if you're like the funny dad, you know, let me see that, you know? Not every post because we're— it's a business platform essentially.

Tony Martignetti
No, no, no. Right.

Bofta Yimam
But no, you know, then no. Right. So very distinct from Facebook, right? I say like, we're not sharing what we ate for dinner. You know, that's very Facebook. So I said everyone just keep that in mind, right? When we say personality. But, but you wanna be changing up the post. Then you might wanna think about a, a case study of a, of a, of somebody you impacted. So if you serve students or you serve the homeless population, can you share a case study? And if you have a photo or video, even better. Keep your videos under 45 seconds. Okay? Because longer than that, a lot of view times drop off. It doesn't get as much. So keep that under 45 seconds per video. And look, raw videos are also really good too. A lot of people wanna make it beautiful, but don't. I tell people like, Again, what you said earlier, like you just need the quick win sometimes. So don't get over your head. I need to hire an editor tomorrow. No.

Tony Martignetti
Oh yeah.

Bofta Yimam
Quick video, quick video, quick hits. I'm all for something. I did something at my dining room table last week. Like just do, do it. 'Cause we all know time can be limited sometimes, right? So just the, the goal is to get you in the motion and the energy of I'm gonna show up, right? And I think if you could show up 2 times a week at the beginning and then move to 3 times a week, is really good. If all you can do is one post a week next week, then do the one post. It doesn't need to be a Pulitzer Prize, folks, right? But it, it just needs to be something that's, that's informative or persuasive or compelling in some way. And so that's why you, you could, you could steal something that I said at the beginning and just say like, I have not been visible. I've been 0% visibility on LinkedIn, and this year it's gonna change.

Tony Martignetti
I'm trying to make a difference.

Bofta Yimam
Yeah. And try to make a difference, right? And, and you could start with something like that just to To get people to wake up and pay attention. But if you do that, Tony, don't lose— don't hurt your brand by then not showing up. Don't wait a month to post.

Tony Martignetti
Yeah, you can't have— every post can't start— every post can't start with an apology. I'm sorry I haven't been here for 6 weeks. You know, that's— that you do have— well, that's the consistency going back to what you said.

Bofta Yimam
Yeah.

Tony Martignetti
You know, and even if you can only do 1 a week in the beginning and then step it up to 2 a week, You know, and then some, maybe some outside appearances as well, if you're comfortable doing the in-person type work or podcasts. But yeah, you know, start really, I mean, really your message is just start. Start. If it's once a week, if it's once a week, that's more than you've been doing.

Bofta Yimam
Yes, exactly.

Tony Martignetti
So start, start. You know, I wanna talk a little about Bofta because this is amazing. Like, Amy, what, you were a professional journalist, obviously you won an Edward R. Murrow Award. What, what's your— what brought you to journalism? Not, not, not to the brand work. What brought you to journalism and storytelling? I love that question.

Bofta Yimam
I haven't even asked that in a long time, Tony.

Tony Martignetti
Oh, good.

Bofta Yimam
Yeah, yeah. So, um, you know, I, I think as a kid I always was drawn to stories and storytelling and writing. So I always knew that I enjoyed the writing process. Like, it could be songs, it could be anything, it could be poems. Like, I enjoyed writing. Um, and then, you know, my—

Tony Martignetti
Did you used to record yourself ever and listen to Did you record yourself, like, on a little tape recorder?

Bofta Yimam
I, I had a tape recorder, and I was— I think I would listen to myself maybe trying to, like, bust a note, like, sing a song or something, right? So yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, I would. Um, and when— I feel like I'm dating myself here, but once, like, VHS, like, video cameras got smaller and smaller, my girlfriend and I, my childhood friend, would, like, you know, videotape ourselves for random things. So we— it's like— Don't worry about dating

Tony Martignetti
yourself, because, because I used to do that with a cassette recorder.

Bofta Yimam
Okay, okay.

Tony Martignetti
So I'm going even further back. I used to listen to myself like pretend DJ.

Bofta Yimam
Oh cool.

Tony Martignetti
On a little cassette recorder. So you're not dating yourself.

Bofta Yimam
And there you are with a podcast.

Tony Martignetti
But no, but tell you, no, no, no, no, but tell your, I wanna hear about Bofta. So,

Bofta Yimam
oh yeah, yeah. So, so, so I think I had, and then my parents, both Ethiopian immigrants who came here in the late '60s, early '70s. And we would always watch 60 Minutes. We would always watch it on Sunday nights. And I remember thinking, It's so cool that they can show up on the scene and know exactly what's going on. Like, I— it felt— I don't know if the word magical is the right word. I've never described it like that, but there was something that I was— that captured my attention with that, you know? And so I would just see them in different, you know, locations or reporters, and it was just so cool, and they were so fluid. And I was like, how does this all— how does this all come together? I think I was just really in awe. Right. And so, um, and so I, you know, um, you know, went to college and at the University of Maryland, and I did a lot of internships. It was hard for me to find my first job. I majored in communications. I, um, I applied to more than 100 TV stations before I got my first job. Yeah. And I, I mean, back then you were sending in a VHS tape and you were mailing it in. So I was just doing that and I was working odd-end jobs, you know, waiting tables, whatever have you, to make ends meet while I was applying. And it took like a year and a half, Tony. I mean—

Tony Martignetti
Oh my God.

Bofta Yimam
I talk to students now, I'm like, oh, you think, oh, you applied to 5 places and you're, you're throwing in the towel? I was like, what? I mean, I was just, I was hungry, you know? I was hungry.

Tony Martignetti
Who gave you, who gave you your first shot? Where'd you get your first journalism job?

Bofta Yimam
Well, I did an internship after college for free. Okay. 2 hours away. And I say for free cuz all these kids are like, if you're ever, if you have a kid, let them listen to this because I'm telling you, nobody wants to work for free. And I'm like, look, that's what I did. So after college for free. I did an internship. I thought I was going to get the job. I was like, oh, I've got this in the bag. You know, I'd been there 2 months. I was commuting back and forth from Maryland to Virginia. And then the news director got fired, left, who knows? And I was like, oh my goodness. But here's what happened. The anchor there had seen me working my tail off and just said, hey, you know, what if, what if, what if there was a job in Georgia? Would you be willing to move to Georgia? Because that's where my first job was, and I can connect you with the news director. Long story short, that ended up being my first job.

Tony Martignetti
That's great.

Bofta Yimam
Yeah, and I and it was and it was somebody $15,000 a year.

Tony Martignetti
That anchor that anchor in in Virginia believed in you.

Bofta Yimam
Melanie believed in me. Melanie believed in me. Melanie was helping me with my resume tape that summer. Melanie, I think, understood how hard it could be. And yeah, she just she extended the olive branch like I'm gonna help you. You know, and I Melanie Lofton and. She's since left the business and everything, but she really helped me. And so, and I'll tell you that I wanted that job so badly that I told the news director in Georgia that, and I've done this a couple of times, I told him that I was gonna be in town to visit friends. And I flew out there, drove 2 hours to Dalton, Georgia, small town of 40,000. And I met him just so I would be like top of the stack when a job was available, 'cause jobs was not available. So 8 months later, he called me back and he's like, do you want the job still? Are you still available? I was like, yes, I am.

Tony Martignetti
Even that. So that, that was— Yes. In your year and a half job search,

Bofta Yimam
right?

Tony Martignetti
That's still scratching together odds and ends jobs, trying to—

Bofta Yimam
Yeah.

Tony Martignetti
Trying to pull it together.

Bofta Yimam
Man, I was hustling.

Tony Martignetti
That's a great— that's a good darn story. That's very good.

Bofta Yimam
Yeah.

Tony Martignetti
All right.

Bofta Yimam
So that was the note till this day, by the way. I think that I, I like literally flew out there just to like Hey, just so you meet me, and I'm at the top of the stack. But anyways, but yeah, good story. Good, good story.

Kate Martignetti
It's time for Tony's Take Two.

Tony Martignetti
Thank you, Kate. I had a moment of vulnerability not too long ago. I'm writing this book, Planned Giving Accelerated, and I spent 9 months Writing the manuscript, 55,000 words. And as I was writing, it was a conversation between me and the reader. That's it. I was sitting, typing, thinking about reader questions, channeling what they might challenge, what they might like to know in addition to, you know, what I'm writing, what more should I be adding? It's just between me and the reader. That's it for 9 months, just the two of us. And then the next stage, after I finished the manuscript, uh, I sent it to 9 different, uh, beta readers. And these are folks who read your book. They may not read all of it. They read parts of it or all of it, and they scrutinize it. They challenge it. They question it. And that felt very vulnerable because for 9 months it was just me and the readers. Readers. I hope, I hope there's more than one reader. I hope more than one person buys the book. Let's assume 2 or more will buy the book. So it'll be just me and the readers. But really, I'm thinking of one person, you know, I'm thinking of just having a conversation with a person. And then all of a sudden, These other 9 people jump in and they start, you know, I'm asking them, I recruited them. It's an essential part of writing a book is to get it beta read. So it's not like they were imposed on me. I invited them in. I need their help. I need feedback. But it felt a little fearful, a little vulnerable because 9 months I was with this thing all alone. And then other people— start hopefully not tearing it apart, but giving their input, giving their input, which is, again, it's an essential part of writing a book, but just sharing how it felt at that moment of emailing those 55,000 words to folks. And the feedback is starting to come in. Uh, it's, uh, early, very early, but pretty, pretty, uh, pretty positive actually. Folks, uh, some folks are laughing. That's good. That's good. It's a light, it's a light read, I would say. Is it light? Is it a light read? It's a lighthearted book. Put it that way. Light read makes it sound like it's, you know, kind of like beach fiction for, uh, you know, for the summertime. It's not like that. But there is a good amount of humor in it. So thanks for just, you know, just wanted to share that vulnerability, vulnerable feeling, letting others into your work after 9 months. And that is Tony's Take 2. Kate?

Kate Martignetti
Congratulations on taking the next step.

Tony Martignetti
Thank you. Thank you very much. It is a big step. Thank you.

Kate Martignetti
Not many people can say that they've— or they're working on publishing a book, but then when you get to that point, you can say, I've published a book.

Tony Martignetti
I'm gonna get there in September. Thank you. Yep, that's the publication September date.

Kate Martignetti
We've got beaucoup but loads more time. Here's the rest of Grow Your Personal Brand and Your Nonprofit with Bofta Yimam.

Tony Martignetti
What did you win the Emmy Award for? Where were you then?

Bofta Yimam
Okay, so I worked in several markets and then I was in Memphis, Tennessee, and there was a woman who had gone through— nearly died, I will say. She had been brutally raped. The convicted rapist was in jail, but there was a loophole in the law that she found out he was getting out early based on good credit. And she's like, how does somebody who almost killed me, raped me get out of jail early on good behavior, right? And so we found this loophole in the law. And, you know, I give it up to Kimberly because she shared her story, which is the only reason why this— this was not going to help her case, but it was going to help those beyond. And so, and with that, you know, she shared her story. A lawmaker found out about what we were working on, that we worked With that lawmaker, to close a loophole in the law for sadly the next victim. But but at least you know with Kimberly sharing her story and getting the support, we were able to do some good. Yeah.

Tony Martignetti
And what station were you at when you got that?

Bofta Yimam
W.H.B.Q. in Memphis, Tennessee.

Tony Martignetti
Memphis, Tennessee.

Bofta Yimam
Yeah.

Tony Martignetti
Congratulations. That's a you know you notice how you you notice how you like. You, you become— you talk a little softer when you're recalling that. Like, you know, like you're a little reflective.

Bofta Yimam
It's traumatic.

Tony Martignetti
Yeah.

Bofta Yimam
I felt for her, you know, and I think anyone watching would have felt for her. I mean, it's just her life was upended and changed forever because of that. And so she's a survivor. I mean, that's— she's, she's a survivor, a beautiful girl. So I, I say it because I— it's You know, you win an award for that and then you think of her story. And so it's hard, you know, it's hard sometimes to— it's an interesting position.

Tony Martignetti
How about the Edward R. Murrow Award? What was that for?

Bofta Yimam
So that was wild because a senator had a news conference. Look, senators have news conferences, as we know, all the time. And I'm right outside D.C., but this was in Macon, Georgia. So small town. And I was a one-man band reporter, which is you shoot, edit, and then show up on camera. So you do the whole— now they call it multimedia journalists because they fancied up the word. But it is usually you're like carrying your camera, filming yourself. You're doing the whole nine by yourself. No videographer. And so I was a one-man band reporter and I was at the news conference and like I used to wear sneakers to work every day because I just felt like I was always running, you know, and carrying equipment. Right. So I wasn't in fancy heels. I was shooting this conference and And the senator had very odd behavior. It's like he held a 3-minute news conference and he walked out. And right, it was just very odd. Like, what's going on? And he was really upset and he pushed the photographer from another, from a newspaper out of the way, like knocked him over or his bodyguard, excuse me, did. And I'm trying to recollect it because this is like 15 years ago and— or 10 years ago. And anyways, I pursued the bodyguard and was like asking him on camera, like, why did you just do that? So he just knocked over— yeah, that's what he did. It was the bodyguard. He just like knocked over that newspaper photographer. And so it was just, again, it was just this really odd. You know, this is a regular day, regular news conference. So I pursued him, kept filming, kept asking questions, and it was all very breaking news. I want breaking news. Um, the, the video went viral. I was interviewed in like Atlanta for it, and, um, we followed up with the senator. I mean, it was just, it just was this ongoing story. Like I said, it was wild, it was bizarre. And, um, and they had the video to then press charges, um, on that bodyguard because I had kept filming and I had filmed the actual assault. So like the assault took In front of me, and I just kept going. So just because I kept carrying my camera. So so that was the that was the breaking news story that I won that mural for. Yeah.

Tony Martignetti
You had the instinct.

Bofta Yimam
Think about that. I had the instinct.

Tony Martignetti
Like this is weird. Why

Bofta Yimam
why would this is weird? And what is going on? And this is wild. And just and everyone was like, weren't you scared he might come for you? For some reason, I just you just in the moment, I was like, no, not really. I don't know why, but he certainly could have just knocked me over too. You know, with a little hand as a bodyguard. So. And I don't really know why he had a bodyguard, or his— it was his nephew, I believe, at a news conference anyway. Like I said, the whole thing was bizarre. Who was the senator?

Tony Martignetti
Who was the senator?

Bofta Yimam
Oh my goodness. Now you're— oh my goodness. Because you're asking me, I forget.

Tony Martignetti
That's all right. It was a senator. It was a U.S. senator from Georgia?

Bofta Yimam
Yes. Yeah. Well, it was a state senator. It was a state senator.

Tony Martignetti
Oh, state senator. Okay. State senator.

Bofta Yimam
Okay. State senator. He has since passed. He has since passed. 90%. This was again a while ago.

Tony Martignetti
And did you

Bofta Yimam
ever

Tony Martignetti
find out why they left the news conference so abruptly?

Bofta Yimam
They gave us just a generic statement, like, no, you know, it was just, it wasn't really, yeah, this was back in like probably 2011. They gave us a generic statement. Yeah, it was a generic statement.

Tony Martignetti
It makes me curious.

Bofta Yimam
Yeah, well, you're a good interviewer.

Tony Martignetti
Yeah, you're right. I'm curious about that.

Bofta Yimam
They just gave a generic statement. The whole thing was bizarre. I mean, they just And then they didn't want— they want to answer our questions afterward, you know. So it was just— it was wild. Yeah.

Tony Martignetti
And then how come you left journalism to— because did you go from journalism to having your own business, to being an entrepreneur? I did.

Bofta Yimam
I did.

Tony Martignetti
What was behind— what was behind that shift?

Bofta Yimam
That's a big move. It is a big shift. It was a big move because I clearly had sacrificed a lot, right? So I'd done a lot to get wherever I was, and I think there was just a push inside of me that wanted to Play bigger. Like, I think what I tell nonprofit leaders to do and for-profit leaders to do, it's like, I— there was a— there was part of me that, yes, I was speaking to thousands of people on camera, but I think by that time I was in Pittsburgh and I was anchoring or reporting. But I— there was something that I wanted.

Tony Martignetti
KDKA? Were you with KDKA?

Bofta Yimam
No, I was WTAE. You familiar?

Tony Martignetti
Yeah. Okay. I went to— I went to Carnegie Mellon. That's where I got my undergrad.

Bofta Yimam
Oh, wow. Pittsburgh. So, okay. Okay.

Tony Martignetti
KDKA. Sorry, KDKA is the only one I remember. But,

Bofta Yimam
um, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Tony Martignetti
Yeah, the only station east of the Mississippi with a K because it was, because it was one of the, it was the first station or was it one of the first stations? They let them, 'cause all the stations east of the Mississippi have W, you know, WABC, WETA, et cetera. But KDKA, they let them keep the K east of the Mississippi 'cause they were maybe the first TV station.

Bofta Yimam
I didn't know that.

Tony Martignetti
Something. Yeah. But west of the Mississippi is all the Ks. Except for, except for KDKA.

Bofta Yimam
Yeah. All

Tony Martignetti
right.

Bofta Yimam
Yeah. Fun fact. Fun fact. But okay.

Tony Martignetti
If anyone— You were W— I remember W— you're WETA. No, WTAE.

Bofta Yimam
WTAE. WTAE is the ABC station there. And so I was there for almost 5 years. And, um, and so I, I think I just felt this pull that I wanted to, to try and do my own thing. I wanted to build my own thing. Um, I still freelance, you know, occasionally for the NBC national news in DC. Okay. I'm right outside DC. Yeah. So sometimes I'll pop up on TV, but I'm, I'm really fully in the business. I just, I like it. I like being able to dip my toe in, and I also enjoy what I do in my own business and speaking. I do a lot of workshops, but I think for me it was this pull to do something bigger and to do something different, and I I couldn't ignore it. I I don't know if anyone's felt that way who's listening, but it's just like I couldn't I couldn't ignore the pull, and I said, "Well, at least I've got to try it," and if it You know, it works out, it works out. If it doesn't, you go back. It was fine. I left on good terms. But I just felt— I felt like I was playing small. Yeah, I felt like I was playing small. I wanted to speak globally. I wanted to just do different things. And it's hard if you're working full-time for someone. You know, it's hard.

Tony Martignetti
Sure, true. Well, now you encourage others to take the step that you took,

Bofta Yimam
right?

Tony Martignetti
To not play small, get outside your comfort zone. Right. Be comfortable outside the envelope.

Bofta Yimam
Yes, yes, yes. And look, we all have— every time you want to go to a new level, like, there are things I think about doing and I'm like, oh, am I ready for that? You know, everyone has, you know, different levels of where they are because if you're growing, then there's part of you that wants to expand and do different things. And I think that, you know, I think about, okay, well, what's next for me too, right? So that's all of us. I think that's all of us. Everyone thinks that you've got it all together just because you're, you know, doing different things and doing them pretty well, right? But, but if you're evolving, there's a part of you that's like, what's next for me? You know, what, what does this still resonate with me? Am I still happy doing this? Does this still have impact, right? And I think those are good questions, you know. So basically I'm saying I don't have it all figured out either, but the part I do have figured out, I'd like to share, you know. So,

Tony Martignetti
so that's perfect. So let's, let's talk more about, uh, the, the personal branding. But thank you for the Bofta Yimam interlude. I like to know about people. I think listeners like to know about people.

Bofta Yimam
I agree. I agree. It was a good flashback. I had to reflect and really think back. I'm like, oh, yeah.

Tony Martignetti
Yeah. No, it's fun. All right. Thank you. Thanks for flashing back with us. So what more would you like to say? We got some time together still. What haven't we talked about around this work? You go, like a quarter in the slot. Go ahead.

Bofta Yimam
Yeah, look, um, I think the first thing that people think about is, am I going to do this or is someone going to do this for me? And is it going to be my comms team? And I, I think I touched on it earlier, but if we have time, I'll touch on it here. You know, your comms team is usually already overloaded, um, and they are focused on the organization's brand.

Tony Martignetti
And your comms team might be a comms person.

Bofta Yimam
That is true too. I should say that. Yeah, that is true too. And so they're already feeling from maybe writing the newsletters and doing the socials, they're already handling the organization's voice. And it's important to make a distinction that your brand is different than the organization's.

Tony Martignetti
Mm-hmm.

Bofta Yimam
And I think a lot of people are like, well, isn't it the same thing? It's like, no, it's 2 different things. You can be an extension of it, but it is 2 different things. And so in knowing that when you have somebody handling the organization's voice and the personal brand voice, it can get tricky. It can get tricky because it's a lot to manage. Also, the personal branding is a beast on its own. You want to be thinking about you on stages, who's going to edit that video if you're going to, but how are you going to essentially handle the inner workings of getting your brand out there. And I think it's an undertaking that people underestimate until they try to do it themselves. And when they try to do it themselves, they either really enjoy it— and I think there's a, a small percentage, but they actually enjoy the writing and the doing of it, and they're really good at it because they really own it and they want to do it and they feel confident. Most, I would say, need some support and need some help. And crafting what their story threads are going to be. And I like to tell people that one way— this is a tip, really, so get out your pens— is if you're stuck on how to tie in your story back to your mission, think of transformational moments. So when you went from this to that, you know, so it could be— It could be

Tony Martignetti
like from journalism to entrepreneurship. For instance.

Bofta Yimam
Right, exactly. From $15,000 a year to X amount of dollars a year, from being a one-man band reporter to having a whole team doing a documentary. Like, so think of the transformation because there's a lot that happened. I mean, I probably have 10 more stories I could share, right? Or 20. Like, there's a lot that happens in the in-between. But I want you to think about the transformational moments going from this to that. And you'll often see this— like, this is a good way for you to think about it when you read the bios of authors on the back. And it's for inspirational authors, you know. So Iyanla Vanzant went from single mom to Oprah's, uh, to being, having her own show on Oprah, you know, or, right. So, or from a domestic violence survivor to that. She did a lot of things, but she focuses on one or two to go from this to that, right? Um, and she's like a spiritual leader who's out there, um, a celebrity, a quasi-celebrity.

Tony Martignetti
What's her name? What's her name again?

Bofta Yimam
Iyanla Vanzant. She just popped in my head because I saw a commercial before I got on this show, like on IG. So, so this is happens, right? My, you know, look, it's brand awareness, I guess she's doing.

Tony Martignetti
Yeah, she's doing it.

Bofta Yimam
Yeah, she's doing it. But if you look on the— a good way is, or, or you look on a podcast, you know, somebody went from this to Mel Robbins. A lot of people know Mel Robbins, the podcast host, right? Who's done, I think she's the number one podcast in the world or something. She, she went from, you know, being $800,000 in debt with a pizza shop with her husband to now having the number one podcast, right? From a this to a that. You know, so, so thinking of your own transformational moments, I think, is really big. Um, so that's a, a place for people to start writing. Now write down 20 transformational moments, and you've got maybe 10 of those that you might wanna make publicly stories. Not everything needs to be shared out loud, right? So, so, so, so I think that that's a way. So imagine, so I go back to the comms team. Imagine your comms team trying to help you with this. It's just a lot, right? It's just a lot. They're, They're like, what transformational moments? We're focused on the organization. So I think it's, you either have to own it yourself, maybe have a really good team behind you, not just one person. Thanks for pointing that out, Tony. A team behind you, or you externally, you know, you know, you hire outside and you figure that out. Okay. And you see if the board can support that. Whatever way you go, see if the board will get behind you too, because the board might say, I have somebody who could maybe sponsor that, or maybe there's unrestricted grant dollars, right? People can get creative when you start to tell them what you're doctoring up and what you're dreaming up. Um, one client got a 2-year grant to work with us, right? But she, she kept us like on her list and she's like, I'm working on this grant. We get this grant, I can use it for this as long as I tie it to this. Great. I'm like, okay, cool. So people find ways once they're committed and they're like, okay, I definitely wanna do this. People find ways. Um, others just get funders maybe to support it, or their, their organization is doing better as their visibility goes up too. Yeah. And look, some people, Tony, I think it's important to mention, never want— like, I don't mention their names because they don't want anyone to know that we're ghostwriting for them. They want to hold it close to their chest, and I respect that.

Tony Martignetti
So yeah, if you gave up their names, that defeats the point of ghostwriting. Yes.

Bofta Yimam
Well, some don't care. Some are like, that's fine. They'll talk about us. Yeah, they help us. Like, okay, you know, CEOs get help all the time with their speeches. Like, whatever, you know, it's like they see it as that, you know,

Tony Martignetti
like,

Bofta Yimam
like a CEO getting help with a speech. They don't see it as being disingenuous. But I, I say that to say, so there's some, if I say too much specific information, it would give away someone. So I'm just, I'm playing very general right now. So is what I'm saying intentionally to protect them. Um, go ahead. You had a question?

Tony Martignetti
Yeah, I wanna, uh, I wanna close with the, uh, with the big-ass calendar behind you.

Bofta Yimam
Okay,

Tony Martignetti
what's that about? You— when we— before we started, off mic, you, uh, you said big-ass calendar is a thing. I don't, I don't know about the thing. So to me, the boxes are very small. It looks like a whole year. Uh, yes, it's like a little 1 by 1 inch by— or 1 and a half by 2 inch boxes. What do you do with this big-ass calendar?

Bofta Yimam
Right, so, um, this is by Jesse Itzler. I made botching his last name. Um, so he's an entrepreneur who talks about like, if you want to have a really exciting life, you've got to make sure you're intentional behind it. And so he has a whole calendar that he created and all the boxes, and there's these stickers. And I, I'm about 2 months of what I'm going to be planning on doing. So you really plan out your whole year. So I have to sit and plan out my whole year. And what it is, is you, um, you pick, um, an activity that you normally wouldn't do, but that would be for yourself. A lot of people have kids and they do things all the time for their kids. This is about like, if you— he's like, if you can't take every 6 weeks one day to do something for yourself that you normally wouldn't do, then you've got to fix that. Like, you should be doing something for yourself. So not to say you won't also do things for your kids, but this is about intention for self. Okay. And, and look, I might be misquoting him, but I'm going to give you all the, the, the brief version, okay? The Bofta version. So, so, so let's say, so last year I took like a Pottery Barn pottery making class because I was like, I've never done that before. It's right up my street and I've been curious about it. I've been like, oh, I want to sign up for this pottery class. So I took a 2-hour pottery class. Not the thing I would normally do. It was my like small activity every 6 weeks. Then he also has a daily habit every quarter to implement. So that daily habit every, every day would be maybe just to drink an extra glass of water. Maybe it's to walk 15 minutes. Maybe it's to move for 15 minutes, but it's some type of daily habit. And every quarter you're compounding. So if it's a 15-minute walk, maybe next quarter it's 8 glasses of water. Now you're doing 8 glasses of water plus the 15. So each quarter you're, you're adding to it. Okay?

Tony Martignetti
Right.

Bofta Yimam
So you got your daily habit, you've got your every 6 weeks, and then I think it's every— and then I can't remember how many times a year, but you're doing like, um, that— it's called a, uh, every like 3 months, I think you do like an actual thing thing that would be even bigger. So, um, it would be like, um, I've never gone hiking, and so I want to go hiking. So he has this whole formula. But the big thing is that this will be the year that when I look back, it will be the year I Launched a podcast, went on podcasts, and it's called a misogi. And the misogi is that big thing that you're going to look back on. Maybe it's you cleared your debt, maybe it's you bought a new home, maybe it's you, um, went on a trip to Japan. It's the year. So when you look back on that year, you should remember it as the year that I did that thing. So, so he has 2 or 3 things that I just described that are all part of the Big-ass calendar, and so there's stickers. And

Tony Martignetti
now I see you have multi—you have multicolored stickers. You got yellow, purple, red. Do those mean different things? Yeah, the red. I assume

Bofta Yimam
the red—the red are birthdays. The orange are my like every six-week activities. Yes. And then yellow is travel, but I haven't filled it all out yet.

Tony Martignetti
No, I can see it's just like it looks like just April or May. You got looks like your last entry is maybe June.

Bofta Yimam
Don't call me out. Yeah,

Tony Martignetti
a little travel in June coming, like 3-day travel in June, 4-day

Bofta Yimam
travel before that.

Tony Martignetti
I got 3 or 4 stickers there. All right.

Bofta Yimam
Yeah, you're working it. And my monthly, um, move goal— my, my daily thing, my daily habit right now is like, I must— I sprayed my— I fractured actually my ankle, um, late this fall. And so I just got out of physical therapy. So my thing is now 15 minutes of movement every day.

Tony Martignetti
Okay.

Bofta Yimam
To get this ankle back up. What I want to do is more, but I say 15.

Tony Martignetti
You know what I take away from this? You practice what you preach. You encourage people to go outside their comfort zone, outside the envelope of security. And every 6 weeks you do something for yourself, or every 3 months you do something that you've never done before. So, Bofta Yimam, practicing what you preach. Thank you.

Bofta Yimam
Thank you.

Tony Martignetti
Thank you.

Bofta Yimam
I appreciate it. It was so fun to be on here, and I love the questions. So it got me thinking. Got me thinking. I'm going to Google the senator because now it's bothering me that

Tony Martignetti
I

Bofta Yimam
can't remember his name, man. Oh, Senator Brown. There it is.

Tony Martignetti
Sorry. Senator Brown, Georgia.

Bofta Yimam
All right.

Tony Martignetti
What year was that Edward R. Murrow Award?

Bofta Yimam
20— I'll tell you right now. Hold on. 2011.

Tony Martignetti
2011.

Bofta Yimam
2011. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's, you know, you do so many— honestly, you do so many stories that I don't like to say just the ones I got awards for because I really, I really believe like a lot of stories were even more powerful and compelling. But sometimes those are what get, you know, what gets recognized is out of my purview, right? But

Tony Martignetti
yeah,

Bofta Yimam
there were a lot of stories where people shared a lot of beautiful things and invited me in their home. And I don't take that lightly. I think that's— it was gratifying and it was beautiful.

Tony Martignetti
I admire journalism. If I hadn't gone to law school, my second choice was to go to a master's degree in journalism. I admire the work of journalists. It's essential for our country. Yeah. I feel badly that they're marginalized and criticized so unfairly, I think. I just admire the field. So thank you for doing that work.

Bofta Yimam
Thank you. Thank you.

Tony Martignetti
Bofta Yimam. You'll find her company at StoryLede. Now it's L-E-D-E, the lead, like the introduction to a piece that would draw you in. StoryLede.com. You need to connect with Bofta on LinkedIn. You'll, you'll find both of us active together often. Bofta, thank you very much. Pleasure.

Bofta Yimam
Thank you, Tony. Really appreciate it. Thank you.

Kate Martignetti
Next week, Systems and processes so your people thrive. If you missed any part of this week's show,

Tony Martignetti
I beseech you, find it at tonymartignetti.com.

Kate Martignetti
Our creative producer is Claire Meyerhoff. I'm your associate producer, Kate Martignetti. The show's social media is by Susan Chavez. Marc Silverman is our web guy, and this music is by Scott Stein.

Tony Martignetti
Yeah! Thank you for that affirmation, Scotty. Be with us next week for Nonprofit Radio, Big Nonprofit Ideas for the Other 95%. Go out and be great!