Big Nonprofit Ideas for the Other 95%
- On Fridays at 1pm Eastern: Talking Alternative Radio
- Listen to the October 11, 2013 archived podcast
My Guests:
Susanne Felder: I Had A Great Interview But I Didn’t Get The Job
Susanne Felder, a consultant in outplacement at Lee Hecht Harrison, says there’s more to getting a job than having a good resume and interview. We talk about research; confident networking; panel interviewing; dodging salary questions; and what to do in the last 30 minutes before your interview. (Originally aired August 31, 2012)
Rochelle Shoretz: Storytelling
Rochelle Shoretz, founder and executive director of Sharsheret, has a compelling story herself as a two-time breast cancer survivor. Sharsheret has built a culture of compassionate storytelling to help its members through their cancer diagnoses and treatments. Rochelle shares ideas on identifying storytellers; supporting them; giving them multiple ways to share; helping them through this very personal process; and why it’s all worth your time.
Top Trends. Sound Advice. Lively Conversation.
You’re on the air and on target as I delve into the big issues facing your nonprofit—and your career.
If you have big dreams but an average budget, tune in to Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio.
I interview the best in the business on every topic from board relations, fundraising, social media and compliance, to technology, accounting, volunteer management, finance, marketing and beyond. Always with you in mind.
When and where: On Fridays at 1pm Eastern: Talking Alternative Radio
You can also subscribe on iTunes to get the podcast automatically.
View Full TranscriptProcessed on: 2018-11-11T23:03:33.392Z
S3 bucket containing transcription results: transcript.results
Link to bucket: s3.console.aws.amazon.com/s3/buckets/transcript.results
Path to JSON: 2013…10…163_tony_martignetti_nonprofit_radio_20131011.mp3.185139426.json
Path to text: transcripts/2013/10/163_tony_martignetti_nonprofit_radio_20131011.txt
Hello and welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio for august thirty one big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. I’m your aptly named host. I do hope you were with me last week, i’d be mortified to learn that you have missed last week’s show i’m recording today’s show weeks ahead of time, so i don’t know what you would have missed last week, so give me a break, but i do know that it included are smart and charming legal contributors jean takagi and emily chan from the non-profit and exempt organizations law group in san francisco, and it was a very good show enlightening, valuable, funny, very funny hope you didn’t miss it this week. I do know what we have. I had a great interview, but i didn’t get the job, suzanne felder, a consultant in outplacement at lee hecht harrison, says there’s more to getting a job than having a good resume and interview, we’ll talk about research, confident networking panel interviewing, dodging salary questions and what to do in the last thirty minutes before your interview recorded at the fund-raising day conferencing june in new york city this this past june and that was hosted by the greater new york city chapter of the association of fund-raising professionals and storytelling, rochelle shoretz, founder and executive director of shark share it has a compelling story herself. As a two time breast cancer survivor, shards share, it has built a culture of compassionate storytelling to help its members through their own cancer diagnoses and treatments deshele will share her ideas on identifying storytellers, supporting them, giving them multiple ways to share, helping them through this very personal process and why all of that is worth your time between the guests on tony’s take two you can still get a free copy of my book if you take my charity registration survey use hashtag non-profit radio to join the conversation with us on twitter here’s my interview with suzanne felder from fund-raising day earlier this year. Welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio coverage of fund-raising day two thousand twelve, hosted by the association of fund-raising professionals greater new york city chapter with the marriott marquis hotel in times square, new york city with me now is suzanne felder. Suzanne is a consultant in outplacement with the firmly hecht harrison susanne welcome, thank you. Pleasure to be here, i’m glad to have you. Thank you. Thanks for taking time on a busy day. Your seminar topic is i had a great interview, but i didn’t get the job. We’re talking about successful interviewing techniques, and i’m doing a lot of interviews today at the conference. But this is the only one to help jobseekers, so generally, we’ll have time for details, but generally what do you see peoples short comings in around interviewing the biggest problem is that people really don’t understand the job, but they’re interviewing for the best practices is to really figure out what is the company looking for in you and two show the best sides of what your talents are to meet the company’s needs and people just don’t take the time to really figure that out, so that so it sounds like research research research is the place to start. So let’s, just, uh, set the scene. We’ve we’ve seen a job advertised or we’ve heard about a job from a colleague what’s the research we should do around the job and the company well, we certainly want to find out everything about that company, see what they do with their mission, whether it’s in the for-profit or not-for-profits sector company, charity, charity, right? Right. So find out, do some research about them on, and then go to lincoln and find maybe some people in your network that might be affiliated with that non-profit or in the past have been with that non-profit and do some real good on the ground research asked people about the culture find out what they’re commitments are and if it really suits your own style and if that’s true, then keep pursuing it and reach out to that non-profit and see if there might be some interest on their part. Okay, now, if it happens to be a bigger organization, you’re going to be working in one business unit of of the charity. How can you find out about what that team or that department’s culture is like? Um, you really are asking your friends what they know about that, even if they haven’t worked there, you know, people have a long reach on, they tend to know people who know people who at one point lived, you know, work there. So it’s really about networking effectively? I can’t say enough about the importance of networking in this market. We have find that about seventy five to eighty percent of people are getting their jobs through direct networking. Oh, meaning they’re they’re finding out about the jobs that hit this hidden job market that we hear about definitely there’s a hidden job talk about that so and what that is and why networking. Helps you break through it well, sometimes non-profits agencies even businesses or not in the position to really announce that they’re looking for whatever their reason is, but they’re sort of on the look out privately, so it’s it’s worthwhile to be having conversations with people and suggesting that you are interested in various really named the targeted cos that you’re interested in pursuing and then have conversations with people that are in a position to hyre because sometimes hiring managers are not ready to hyre but once they know something about your background, you’re on their radar. Okay, that’s, the way to really advance yourself for the future when the job actually becomes a reality. Now i think it’s a bad practice you’d tell me if i’m right, you’re welcome to say that i’m wrong that really you just start your networking when you start your job search well, networking actually, i have to disagree with you because networking should be something that’s going on on going. Actually, i guess i don’t say i’m training coach people tohave a gn active network at all time at all times correct, don’t just start when you’re in a job search completely. Agree that’s, right and that’s what what we find is that people often are saying to us that have had long runs with really good non-profits and for-profit companies that they really lost track of the importance of their network, they were doing well with the company that we’re there for ten years, they were going up the ranks, and they just sort of people left the firm, and they didn’t keep shack where they went, and now all of a sudden they’re looking to re and find them, and it feels a little awkward to them, like, you know, they had for gotten them. And now that they’re in the different side of the table, it’s ah it’s a big awakening and they’re saying now they will never do that again. They will be available for people and keep their network engaged well and that’s, right and that’s the other side of networking. I mean, you have to be available to help others when you’re not in need of help yourself. Absolutely it’s about being a giver on we took about donors thes it’s giving of yourself and that’s an ongoing thing. And the people who it’s funny what? I have found personally is that people who have often been helping others helping others always through their career, they feel most reticent about asking they feel like they should be the ones just helping and i say to them, you’ve been so kind, it’s it’s, time for you to receive it’s it’s, pay back time for you and please do not ever feel remiss about that, especially if you’ve been giving but interesting there’s so accustomed to giving that they’re reluctant to approach their their own network. Yeah, receiving is a lot harder for them, and then i understand that, but it’s, they’ve in-kind it’s time to gets him something back and and it’s perfectly acceptable, and what we are finding is that people are more than willing to be helpful. People that never works, spect it to be helpful are becoming the most helpful, so the second tier, the third tier of their degree of separation, if you will are, tend to be the most helpful, because don’t we all want to just help people? Don’t most people want to help others? One would think, but now, in this process, you find out who really is genuine and who is less and then those that are very close to us they just might not be able to help in a substantial way, so they feel like they should hang back and not be too close to you because they feel badly they can help. But this is the time when we really need people tio be there for us, even if it’s just emotionally to be understanding that you’re going to get through it. But it’s a challenge on dh we’re talking a lot about networking with friends or friends of friends. What about going to networking events? Where it’s a room full of strangers, that’s always a good process to get good at it’s like a social experience because people really have a hard time talking to strangers. So we heavily encourage people to go to conferences, professional conferences, places where they’re goingto be around people like themselves who are from their fields and just get more and more comfortable with talking, if you will. Talking to strangers. Yeah, well, and i imagine that helps in the interview process completely completely what we do it. We have harrison as we give them the opportunity to comfortably talk. About themselves, which is not very natural for people. You know what? Tell me about yourself, and what do you do? And what you good at is not what comes off of most people’s tongue, naturally. So we give them opportunities to always be introducing themselves and give them lots of networking groups to join. And people just come out of their shells. It’s. Remarkable how, after a couple of months of being around others, they’re perfectly comfortable to do that. Yes, talking alternative radio, twenty four hours. Do you need a business plan that can guide your company’s growth? Seven and seven will help bring the changes you need. Wear small business consultants and we pay attention to the details. You may miss our culture and consultant services a guaranteed to lead toe. Right, groat. For your business, call us at nine. One seven eight three, three, four, eight, six zero foreign, no obligation free consultation. Check out our website of ww dot covenant seven dot com are you fed up with talking points? Rhetoric everywhere you turn left or right? Spin ideology no reality, in fact, its ideology over in tow. No more it’s time for the truth. Join me. Larry shot a neo-sage tuesday nights nine to eleven easter for the isaac tower radio in the ivory tower will discuss what’s important to you society, politics, business and family. It’s provocative talk for the realist and the skeptic who want to know what’s. Really going on? What does it mean? What can be done about it? So gain special access to the ivory tower. Listen to me. Very sharp. Your neo-sage tuesday nights nine to eleven new york time go to ivory tower radio dot. Com. For details. That’s. Ivory tower, radio, dot com e every time i was a great place to visit for both entertainment and education. Listening. Tuesday nights nine to eleven. It will make you smarter. Hey, all you crazy listeners looking to boost your business? Why not advertise on talking alternative with very reasonable rates? Interested simply email at info at talking alternative dot com so our subject is interviewing, but this is all feeding the interview. This all came. This networking are networking discussion. All came from doing the right research around the job and the culture of the organization as much as you can find out about the organization right now, in your seminar description, there are three r’s and researchers at first, but resource is what’s. Your advice around resource is on resource is finding out. What you bring to the table? What what resource is that the candidate brings us? I believe that’s the idea that we’re getting at how can you help that organization and pinpointing what your real strengths are and how that can help advance that organization? That’s really what you want to in part to them and you’ll find out about the organization’s needs as you’re doing your due diligence, your research find out you might find out some of the shortcomings that the organization has and see how you can plug those gaps. Absolutely, you want to know what value khun ad so you might brings a special connection or a special perspective to that non-profit you know, say it’s, a science institution, and you happen to have background in science that’s evaluated that is extremely important, and you’re not the average say fundraiser, if that’s your field, your fund-raising that happens to really know a lot about science, and therefore you could speak more passionately about it, so that would be really important aspect that you want to bring out to the non-profit do you have specific advice around? Dahna when you’re subject to, ah, panel interview, i mean the panel could be two people, but it could be as many as five or six. Wait, how do we that’s incredibly intimidating you walking into a room of let’s say it’s the worst case? Six strangers and they’re all sitting on the other side of the table. How do you prep yourself for that that’s? A real challenge is one that we do address because it’s called like the stress interview and it’s to see how you stand up in aa extremely unusual circumstance. What you normally would not be the target of a conversation like that in real life. So we tell people, introduce yourself to each person individually. Make sure that you have eye contact with each person and shake their hand, make yourself known and remember their name so shake their hand. Just go down the line of the table is absolutely when you were coming room. Yes, when you come in, introduce yourself individually to each of them make an impression on them that you’re confident and you know you want to engage with them. And then if the questions are coming a little bit too fast and too furious, there are ways to slow. It down a bit of humor on that always helps break the ice a bit, because sometimes people just lose sight of the fact that you’re only a person and you’re a pit under under the gun. So i’ve had a client to have said things like, oh, i made it like it was jeopardy, and i say, all right, i’ll take i’ll take jim for two hundred, and then i’m going to take, you know, the next person, arlene for lina five hundred, but yeah, so it kind of everyone has to laugh at that because you realize that, you know, how many can you do it once? Obviously, it’s, just one on. They are trying to see what? What it’s like for you to trial under fire? S o we try to get people to realize that humor is a good thing and it helps people relax as well helps you relax. You can always take a drink of water. Give yourself a moment to think, and companies are looking to see what what you’re about. You also have to realize if that is their culture, to be that way, to be very in your face. You have to know is that for you? Is that is that you? Yes. You. It may not be for you about about preparing for the serial interview. You know, you’re going to have three interviews in the day. Each one is going to be a test forty five minutes. I would think. How do you how do you prepare for that? That multiple interview where you could be on you could be on for close to three hours in a row, but with three different people, right? Ah, you want to be prepared to give a good examples of a variety of things that you’re about, like different facets of a diamond and you don’t wantto be repeating the same story of store three times. And then there are other they say, oh, yeah, she told me that he told me that story. I heard that already. So you can have to come prepared for your interview with good what we call them accomplishment stories, if you will, on s o that joe have maybe six or eight really important projects that you’ve worked on, that will really show you off to best advantage. You can come in with a portfolio. And have some points of keywords for yourself to remember that you want to make sure that this project gets put on the table. And then you mix it up so that everybody is hearing some different stories out of you. And each can bring out different facets of what makes you successful growth that you’ve money that you’ve brought in from non-profit. Have you created new event? Have you doing outreach brought in new community members brought on board members? These are things that are important, usually to fund-raising organ operations. What if i feel that i’ve gotten a question that’s, inappropriate or illegal, around age or pregnancy, or? Sexual orientation? How do i how do i handle that in that moment? Yes, in that moment, you might want to say, can you rephrase that question? Or is that a chance to give him a chance to realize that that might be a really uncomfortable thing to be talking about and that you sort of object teo to getting that question? John, you might say, is that relevant to the job? Or i’ve heard people say they’re asked whether or not they have young children. Obviously the employer is trying to get at are you going to be away if the child is sick? S o sometimes people will say, oh, is this a very, very family oriented company is, you know, doo doo doo family events? Is that why you’re asking? So you try to soften it? You try not to be in their face about a fact that that’s really overstepping their bounds, but to some extent you have to pick your battles because you are looking for the job. So although this does also inform the culture of the organization that it might not be the right fit completely, completely do take note that if they’re overstepping that this might be a real invasive place and that they’re expecting a whole lot from you. That is really not normal. And that might not be if you say a good fit. No. Alright, um the third of the three r’s thatyou have his references it’s important? Who you select for your references what’s your what’s your advice around that references can go back twenty years. I could go back from beginning of your career. I don’t think people think about i think they think of the last job, right? And that is certainly not the whole scope of what is appropriate to use references khun b people that were above you people, that it could be people that reported to you it could be your peers pier level it khun b a your boss’s boss anyone that knew the quality of your work and speak for you those are appropriate references. They could also be if it’s for a community organization. It might be something that you do on your private time that you’d like to have that person reporting about your experience with you, perhaps in your community service. So you want to get a variety of references that will reflect all sides of what your background is, good people when they’re asked tio provide a reference often asked, what do you want me to say? You know what should i talk about it? It’s okay, give that advice around what, what you’d like them to be specific about. Yes, it is because oftentimes if you’ve worked with someone five years ago, they might forget exactly which projects you worked on together, so people kind of need prompting, like, so you want to remind them remember, we did this, such and such together, and we had this result, so by you’ve sort of writing out some pointers about what your relationship together was, like it’s really informative, it helps them. It takes them off the hook of the pressure of oh, i forgot. What am i going to say? And it’s also you feeding them what you felt was the most important aspect of the project so that they’re goingto right. Quite cogently and importantly about what you did. Yeah, and it might just be a conversation to a lot of references. I just checked my phone. No. Yes. That’s right now. Another thing about references. When you have a company, the company you might have just come from in the corporate world, this is very true. The company often will on ly just verify that you worked there and how long that you worked there, so that can be a bit of a problem if you know your best references of the people that are still there, the way to overcome that would be to look at people that have gone on moved on to another organization, and then they’re not under that up that corporate policy hr restriction of not being able to give a reference, but you don’t see that so much in charities that unwillingness to say more than just confirm data report it’s not a strict it doesn’t seem to be a strict people are a little more willing to talk about the other thing that people are very surprised about is that cos you can ask what person salary was and you know it can be verified. The new employer can ask for your w two, which seems really invasive to find out. What did you actually make on paper? Yes, napor connects with you too. You can ask your w two so, it’s, when you talked about salary, which is a whole other chapter, you know, how do you dodge the salary question, which we do recommend that you try to keep that salary question off to the side as best you can, okay, but at a certain point, they’re gonna want to know, are you like, within the ballpark of the range that they’re interested in on? You can always say, this is what my package was, this is where i left off at and then just back away from it and say, i’m very interested in this organization, and i really it’s more important to me to talk to you about the opportunity, and we could always i’m sure if we’re on the same page, we’ll come to a mutually agreeable point with salary. Okay, well, i was going to ask how to dodge the salary question, but you just you just did it. Yeah, it’s that important? I think everyone is very nervous that they’re going to be put on the spot. Now, when you’re working with the recruiter, it seems to be an easier conversation to have because the recruiter is representing you and the recruiter wants to know, are you in the ballpark for what they will go for? You know, if you’re completely at a different salary rate much hyre they might be a fruit, you know, footless kind of conversations. So you do want to be forthright with the recruiter? You try to keep that conversation in the background if you’re going directly in number about the last hyre half hour before the interview. So my remains of your scheduled for two thirty it’s now two o’clock let’s say i’m already on site. I’ve arrived, so i guess your advices get there earlier. Yes, to make sure you’re not late. Yes. Okay. Now what do i do with this last half hour? Last half hour. Okay, so you’re coming in. You certainly want to have at least fifteen minutes to be ableto fill out any forms if they have them. So that there’s going to be at least fifteen minutes. That’s going to be for that show up early is that we show up early before. Oh, certainly show up early on. That gives you a time. Tio really, look around and assess what you’re seeing. Look at the interaction of the people in the organization with the receptionist and i see the culture, you could really learn a lot by just watching and observing fifteen or twenty minutes, right? Absolutely come and go watch people come and go. And if the receptionist is not busy, have a chat with the receptionist. You learn a lot about the organization, find out what their experience has been. Have they’ve been there a long time? It is a lot of benefit that you could actually gather, and then it helps inform you of howto handle yourself in the interview, you might learn of events that are coming up for special projects that are on the table that you might not have known. So it’s always a good idea to be highly respectful and interactive, if you can, with the front desk, because that front test person is going to be giving the first frontline response to the hiring person as to what was your impression? Oh, there might be a receptionist might actually be asked, absolutely, and if you come in all huffy and and annoyed and you didn’t get through security fast enough and whatever happened and you come in all in a in a rage, they’re taking note because you’re on, you’re on from the minute you walk in that door. Okay, so collect your thoughts, get yourself together and remember, the clock starts when you walk in that door at reception. Right? Okay. Okay. Um, we have just maybe a minute or so men and a half left. What about the resume? You have advice around resumes, resumes or something that can be targeted, targeted for particular jobs. Don’t think of your resume as a static item. That just is the same for every place that you’re applying for because each job has slightly different requirements. And just like you have many facets, you want a feature, the ones that are most important to that non-profit so you do want to tailor your resume to be very appealing to their needs. We certainly suggest a summary statement. This is that used to be years ago. You did an objective. Okay. And now, it’s really about summarize you quickly summarize your strains what your capabilities are, and then you go into your accomplishment statements. Okay? We have a couple seconds left. Anything else you want to say about resumes? Well allows you. Specifically length if i’ve been in the non-profit world for fifteen, seventeen years, is it okay to have a two three page resume? Two pages the limit? People get a little weary of reading and you don’t have if you’re going twenty, twenty five years, you don’t have to give all your experience you could just give like the last fifteen years is certainly enough, and you could always speak to further back if they are interested. Okay, we’re gonna wrap it up there. Perfect. Suzanne felder is a consultant in outplacement with the firmly hecht harrison, and you’re listening to tony martignetti non-profit radio coverage of fund-raising day two thousand twelve at the marriott marquis in times square, new york city. Suzanne, thank you very much for being a guest, thank you so much. Appreciate it with pleasure and momentarily you’ll be listening to tony’s take two and then real shell shoretz will be with me stay with us after this break. I didn’t think that shooting getting dink dink, dink dink you’re listening to the talking alternative network duitz e-giving e-giving you could are you suffering from aches and pains? Has traditional medicine let you down? Are you tired of taking toxic medications, then come to the double diamond wellness center and learn how our natural methods can help you to hell? Call us now at to one to seven to one eight, one eight three that’s to one to seven to one eight one eight three or find us on the web at www dot double diamond wellness dot com way look forward to serving you. Hi, i’m ostomel role, and i’m sloan wainwright, where the host of the new thursday morning show the music power hour. Eleven a m. We’re gonna have fun. Shine the light on all aspects of music and its limitless healing possibilities. We’re going invite artists to share their songs and play live will be listening and talking about great music from yesterday to today, so you’re invited to share in our musical conversation. Your ears will be delighted with the sound of music and their voices. Join austin and sloan live thursdays at eleven a. M on talking alternative dot com. You’re listening to the talking alternative network. Dahna lively conversation. Top trends, sound advice, that’s. Tony martignetti, yeah, that’s. Tony martignetti non-profit radio. And i’m travis frazier from united way of new york city, and i’m michelle walls from the us fund for unicef. Hi there and welcome back, it’s, time for tony’s take two at roughly thirty two minutes into the hour, i have a charity registration survey on my blogged been there for a few weeks. If you finish the three minute survey, then you’ll get a free download of my book, charity registration state by state guidelines for compliance and the fee for that could be as high as two hundred ninety nine dollars, depending on the size of your charity. I really want to understand more about your experience with this morass of st charity registration laws that’s why i wrote the book to help charities sift through all the regulations i’m working on a project that will that i really need your help with. So please share your experience. Even if you don’t know that much about charity registration, i’d be grateful if you would take the three minutes teo to do the survey, and at the end of the survey, you’ll be offered a download for of my of my book that post is called help me out and get my book free that’s from august thirteenth and it’s on my blogged at tony martignetti dot com and that is tony’s take two for friday. The thirty first of august thirty seventh show of the year with me now is rochelle shoretz rochelle founded shark threat to connect young jewish women fighting breast cancer following her own diagnosis at age twenty eight, they’re based in teaneck, new jersey. You’ll find them at sharp, share it dot or ge rochelle served as a law clerk to see supreme court justice Ruth bader ginsburg in 19:90 nine since sharks are its founding in two thousand won, they have launched eleven national programs, responded more than two, more than nineteen thousand calls and e mails request for help from those affected by breast cancer shoretz programs and services are now open to all women and men deshele record lectures a lot about breast cancer for audiences across the country. She is a member of the federal advisory committee on breast cancer in young women. You may have seen her on the today show, cbs news or fox news today. She’s on tony martignetti non-profit radio deshele welcome. Thank you. I’m very glad that you’re with us from tina. How are you doing out here? Supplier? We’re good, we’re good, we’re getting. Some nicer weather. Okay, um, you’re you founded sharks share it. I think around a kitchen table dining room table was done. And i’m sorry that the wrong room. Okay, well, it’s a bigger issue. I mean, maybe you don’t have anything. You don’t have a need in kitchen. Sorry, iraq. Okay, so it’s around a dining room table. Since we’re talking about storytelling, why don’t you take a moment and tell that dining room table story? Sure. Well, i was diagnosed with breast cancer for the first time when i was just twenty eight years old, and it occurred to me that although we had so many organizations for breast camps are advocacy research, we didn’t have an organization that address some of the unique needs of young women facing breast cancer and those metoo could include, i think, like fertility, career, parenting, genetic, social life, relationships on everywhere i went, i happen to be the youngest woman in the waiting room by an average of twenty years. And so shar sharon began as an effort, really, to collect the stories of and the experiences of young people facing breast cancer and more even more specifically, jewish women and families facing breast cancer because jewish families tend to have an increased risk of hereditary breast cancer could be ten times higher than the average than the average woman. And so there were fight of us around the table that first night, that dining room, table on by, you know, talked about the need for an organization that address some of those unique concerns. Way were five, and then we became ten. And now where more than sixteen hundred peer supporters nationwide. All right. And what is the the annual budget of sharp share? It gives people a sense. So when you’re eleven, which is what we are in now, the annual budget is about one point, eight million dollars. All right. And how many employees? We have fourteen, staff people, and we run eleven national programs with the help of more than five thousand volunteers nationwide, you have very heartfelt, compelling videos on the site and some on youtube. How do you find your story tellers? You know, we really we reach out in lots of different ways. And i think in our experience, we found that the more with the more we reach and in the more diverse in the more diverse mode abilities we used to reach women, the more diverse the stories we get back, we find stories in a few ways. First, we find them through social media using facebook and twitter and ask people to share their stories whether it’s on thanksgiving day, for example, we might ask people toe right in what they’re thankful for. As a young breast cancer survivor on twitter, we might say, you know, tweet us, you know, the things that you’re most grateful for in twenty twelve so you find some of our stories on social media, we use our blogged to share stories, but also to get storytellers to share their email sometimes will do an e mail blast and a good example of that was my fortieth birthday, which was just a couple of weeks ago. I shared my fortieth birthday wish, and we asked others to share theirs as well. And so we got some stories that we were going to talk about that later on because you got a great response. I know too, that to that talk about them very traditional means of focus groups, for example, where we have women come into the office and share their stories and we can either take those weaken, videotape them, audiotape them on, and then have them transcribed so that we can use them for other purposes. Okay? And we’re going to have a chance to talk to you about some of the the i don’t know. I don’t mean to sound heart like, you know, cold calling them channels, but method’s something different methods like the like the face-to-face focus groups that your record, but right now i’m just trying to focus on how you identify storytellers, and sometimes they just come to you, write and tell you that they want to share their story with others. Sometimes they dio, you know, for some breast cancer survivors, that could be a very empowering way to close the loop on their breast cancer experience, where they’re sharing their story in the hopes of inspiring and empowering others. Sometimes we have to reach out and encourage people to share their stories, whether it’s with incentives or just by explaining to them that that’s another way of contributing to the organization in a non financial capacity on dh sometimes we, you know, it’s sort of low hanging fruit, they’re already sharing a piece of their story. We can tell that it’s a compelling story, and so we reach out and just sort of nudge them along and say, you know, you told us a little bit about your experience, but we could, you know, we would really benefit from sharing that same story with, you know, lots of people and, you know, would you mind sharing some more? So we find them out those ways you can view this as a cz, a volunteer opportunity, and we dio you know, sometimes people think that being a volunteer means coming into the office or e-giving tremendous amounts of time or contributing in terms of dollars, but really, being a storytelling could be a wonderful volunteer opportunity that doesn’t require people to go too much out of their way, or tio reach into their pockets and you sometimes these stories are written right? And and sometimes video or audio recorded that’s right on dh. Then sometimes they can be longer, and sometimes they can be shorter. You know, a tweet, for example, is one hundred forty characters. A facebook post might be a paragraph a block post might be three paragraphs some might be written some people feel much more comfortable writing, but others feel more comfortable speaking and in whatever way we can capture their story. That helps us. That helps us collect more stories because we find people in lots of who feel comfortable with different avenues of expression. How do you overcome the conundrum that people might like, tio, write their story. But on the web, viewers are more interested in watching video than than reading, you know, that’s, an important that’s important challenge, and i think we all face in the nonprofit sector. You know, people feel more in control in some ways of the written word and certainly more comfortable behind the pen and behind the camera. But we find that our viewers really liketo watch on and it’s easier to share when we can just ask them to it’s linked to something on youtube or share a web based link. You know, we try to we try to identify those who will come across well on camera whose stories just feel more compelling because they have a great, almost like a stage presence in a certain way. Sometimes we use basic incentive. You know, come on in for a day of videotaping an and that encourages people tio take the leap, and and sometimes we just note that it doesn’t have to be a professional camera set up. You know, it could be your iphone, for example, that you stick on video mode and just shoot yourself speaking honestly into the camera, so we try to make it not to professional and too intimidating, because as you said, the truth is people to respond mohr two videos in some ways than they do to the written word, and we’ve had many guests on say that video does not have to be high production value to be compelling and sincere and moving. I think that that’s, true, but i would take issue with one piece of it, i think, as a non-profit leader, one of the things we’re always watching for quality control and brand management, and so an organization like ours that really strive keep a very professional face. There are so many breast cancer organizations that are not necessarily as as focused on that sort of professional, the professionalism with which we pride ourselves. We really struggled with that balance on the one hand, no, it doesn’t have to be a twenty thousand dollar two minute clip. On the other hand, when we send something out that is videotaped on a shaky camera or that doesn’t look professional, it does in some way reflect on our own ground. And so we walk a fine line between sort of that honest, almost raw quality of video and something that looks too professional to polished to almost teo and focus on attacking at heartstrings say a little more about some of the my voice is cracked like i’m a fourteen year old more with me with me, and we’re not even in the same room. I’m it’s that your charm comes across the phone line. You say a little more about the contest you mentioned and some of the incentives that you might offer toe to induce women or men to tell their story? Yeah, you know, sometimes it could be something as simple as dinner, right? When we do a focus group in our office will say, you know, they’ll dinner reserved at seven, you know, come share your story and people will come around the table and the focus groups i should. Emphasize they’re not just for storytelling, although that is an integral part of what ends up happening inevitably it’s also an opportunity for us to get feedback on programs and fund-raising initiatives and other core aspects of what we do at the organization um, sometimes it could be a simple and incentive as dinner. Sometimes it could be, you know, a t shirt it could be, you know, a reimbursement for travel expenses. It comes in all shapes and sizes on doesn’t have to be monumental mean t shirt or just expense reimbursement. People are moved by small, by small offerings there moved by small offering than i would even say it’s not i wouldn’t even say that that’s what sort of pushing them over the edge? I think i think people want to share their story, they think it apparently there is a need to share in some people, and we are just tapping into that and sort of pushing it along a little bit just wouldn’t even say that the incentive is what makes or breaks the desire to share that desire is built into some people, they find it empowering and when you give them a knave anew that feels comfortable, whether it’s the incentive that makes him feel comfortable, the environment you set up in the office that makes him feel comfortable. The, you know, personal phone call that you might make to encourage them to come in and share their story that’s the little those of the little things that help push them over the edge and make them feel even more comfortable sharing there’s a very touching video done by a woman named brenda. And she tells the story of ya l who ended up not surviving her cancer. But the video is really it’s. Very, very moving. Do you want to say a little about that? Yeah. That’s a video that we produced for our tenth anniversary. We wanted to share the stories of families that had established major gift in support of star shoretz programming on. We wanted really to understand what it was that compelled them to give. And the reason we wanted to understand that was we wanted to be able to share their stories with other family members and friends who might also be considering larger gift. Um, and we felt that that would be the easiest way to translate their own desires to the actual gift it south. And so we highlighted for families, although i should say before we narrowed down to four families, we started with six or seven potential stories and then narrowed it down to the four that we wanted teo highlight on the video on dit was we really didn’t know what to expect. You know, the cameras followed these families around for a few hours in a given sunday and really just have them share what compelled them to give and establish their major deft, and the stories are beautiful, you know, each one different, you know, one was the story, the one that you mentioned about a young woman who connect metoo another pierce support or shall we have just about a minute before break? Ok, so guys tell the story of brenda and yell. So it was a young woman who was connected to another pierce supporter and the peer supporter passed away and our, you know, our young caller wanted to establish a gift in her memory to make sure that others living with advanced breast cancer had a place to turn on. You know, the story came out. Beautifully it’s touching. It is compelling, and it also incentivizes others who are thinking about a major gift. We’re gonna take a break. Rochelle will stay with us, and we’ll continue talking about storytelling that hope you stay with us also. You’re listening to the talking alternative network. Are you stuck in your business or career trying to take your business to the next level, and it keeps hitting a wall? This is sam liebowitz, the conscious consultant. I will help you get to the root cause of your abundance issues and help move you forward in your life. Call me now and let’s. Create the future you dream of. Two, one, two, seven, two, one, eight, one, eight, three, that’s to one to seven to one, eight one eight three. The conscious consultant helping conscious people. Be better business people. Dahna have you ever considered consulting a road map when you feel you need help getting to your destination when the normal path seems blocked? A little help can come in handy when choosing an alternate route. Your natal chart is a map of your potentials. It addresses relationships, finance, business, health and, above all, creativity. Current planetary cycles can either support or challenge your objectives. I’m montgomery taylor. If you would like to explore the help of a private astrological reading, please contact me at monte at monty taylor dot. Com let’s, monte, m o nt y monty taylor. Dot com. Talking alternative radio twenty four hours a day. Duitz welcome back with rochelle shoretz and she is the founder of shar share it which you’ll find it sharp. Share it dot or ge s h a r s h e r e t dot org’s deshele the shar sharon is a chain or necklace in hebrew so it’s a little more. And what you call your members explain that sure are pierce supporters we call link as though they were linked in a jane and it’s actually come full circle because when i was diagnosed with breast cancer a second time, i started to use the services that we created as an organization. And so i was the first link, and then ultimately now depend on, um on on other links in our chain chain is miles long now, right? Yeah. Stands the country were in all of the state. So you had a very successful written block post because we’re talking about righting versus video. But your your birthday block post did did very well. Got a lot of comments. Brought attention to shar. Share it once you share that. Sure. So my fortieth birthday was a couple of weeks ago and celebration of happy. Thank you in celebration of my birthday, i wrote a block post about the imp significance of turning forty and all that had changed in the breast cancer arena since i was diagnosed at twenty eight and i specifically highlighted and shared another story, the story of my grandmother, who had also been diagnosed with breast cancer when i was younger and how much the breast cancer story had changed in the eleven years since my diagnosis. And we were amazed at the response, we posted it as a birthday wish, and then we asked our readers and our stakeholders teo, write a birthday wish back to me and we i think we had over one hundred responses. We shared it in in many modality, so it was on facebook it was on our block. We tweeted about it. We sent it out by email, we really blasted it on. The response was beautiful and in fact the staff as a gift to me collected all of the responses and put them together as ah, birthday book on, and it was beautiful and encourage people to share their own stories. They talked about their own grandmothers who had been diagnosed with breast cancer. They shared some of their own stories, and again, these will be the seeds for further storytelling. We will be able to look back at all of these responses and pick from them others who might be interested in sharing their stories and greater and greater kapin more incentive again, as we talked about, i see stories everywhere. You know that movie i see dead people. I stories. I see stories everywhere. It just went on a hundred mile bike ride with a boardmember on. I set her at the end of the ride. Linda, you should share your story on the block like writing something. And she did right away and again, we sent it out to all the riders. Everybody who had been on the ride. There’s. You know, really, everything we do there is an opportunity for someone to share their story. It might be why they participated in an event that might be what they learned that a given event it might be, you know, a reflection at a milestone. There’s. Always the potential to turn something that seems programmatic into something that elicit emotion through storytelling. That’s. Excellent. And how do you feel that all this story telling is helping shark share it well, you touched on it a little before the break. We really used the stories in many different ways, we use him for programmatic purposes. So for example, we anecdotally they provide feedback to us on the program that we provide, and perhaps programs that we need to provide that we need to develop. We have them in marketing materials like brochures and newsletters, we use them in fund-raising efforts, whether it’s a thank you letter to donors or video that we’re producing for major givers on, we really try to find lots of different ways to use the same story or different stories to engage our diverse audience. What kinds of reactions do you get to the stories you know, i think we keep the story israel, which makes the stories even more compelling. You know, stakeholders these days are very sophisticated, so they didn’t know when you’re trying to get their heartstrings. But when the emotion is wrong, when the story israel on when people can relate to it, i think we find any way that the response is is great, certainly more effective than just shooting statistics in a brochure or, you know, highlighting accomplishment. It gives a face and a voice to the experience that we are addressing. How do you have? Yeah, yeah, please. Go ahead. Finish your thought. But how do you help the storytellers overcome their fear of you? Said people really want to do it, but suppose they have this fear, or maybe maybe even while they’re in the midst of story of writing or being interviewed or telling their story right in the middle of it. How do you help them overcome these fears? Well, i think the most important thing that we dio way provided a safe space for the storytelling. You know, people might be very excited about sharing their story in aa, you know, at the at the onset. But once they start to tell it, once they start to share it, it becomes very personal, very raw. They start to hesitate. So we try to set up a safe space throughout the process. The first will guarantee that we will share whatever edited version of their story with them before it goes public. We guarantee we highlight for them very specifically where that story will appear. It will be in the newsletter, it will appear on the web. It will. We might use it for a brochure, and so they have a very concrete understanding of what’s going to happen with that story. That being said, you know, we still went in sometimes two challenges that we have to address on the fly. I’ll give you a specific example. This is not a verbal story, but a picture story. We did a picture. A picture exhibit of rochelle. I’m sorry. We have just about a minute left. Okay, so we did a picture display of ten of our women and one of the women who was very comfortable when she took her photograph ultimately started to hesitate. And so we have to narrow down where we were going to use that photo. So i think keeping the safe space safe, ensuring and basically ensuring that you are going to communicate with the storyteller helps them feel more comfortable sharing their story. It’s really it’s all very compelling and touching. And i want to thank you very much for for sharing all this valuable information and also your own story with our listeners. Rochelle, thank you very much. Now, my pleasure deshele shoretz founded sharks shoretz to connect young jewish women fighting breast cancer they now work with people dealing with ovarian cancer as well and it’s open to men, women of all races, nationalities, etcetera. You’ll find them at sharp, share it dot or ge i want to thank my guests, of course, suzanne felder and rochelle shoretz also the organizers of fund-raising day for hosting me on the exhibit floor and allowing me to get that susan felder interview next week. I don’t know what’s coming up next week, give me a break because i’m recording this on august fourteenth and next week is going to be september seventh, but i do know that the september seventh show will include the smart, charming and resourceful maria simple, our prospect research contributor, and i know it’ll be a very good show and funny. I host a podcast for the chronicle of philanthropy that is called fund-raising fundamentals. It’s, a ten minute monthly podcast devoted to fund-raising it’s on itunes, it’s on the chronicle website. If you like this show, then please check out fund-raising fundamentals continuing to wish you good luck the way performers do around the world russian theater folks say poca de pere, neither down nor feathers. That comes from wishing a hunter bad luck, which is really good luck to come home from the hunt empty handed. So you wouldn’t want to say thank you to that, because they’re giving you a bad luck wish, even though it’s a good luck wish. So what russians will respond with is shorty, go to the devil. And to think thes people contribute to the international space station. I don’t know, but it all seems tto together. Um and i want to thank janice taylor for her, continuing to give me these language lessons and artists. Good wish, explanations. Our creative producer was claire meyerhoff. Janice taylor is also our line producer. Shows social media is by regina walton of organic social media, and the remote producer of tony martignetti non-profit radio is john federico of the new rules. I hope you’ll be with me next friday, september seventh at one to two p, m eastern here at talking alternative dot com. E-giving didn’t think dick tooting getting dink, dink, dink, dink. You’re listening to the talking alternate network. Get in. Nothing. Cubine are you a female entrepreneur ready to break through? Join us at sexy body sassy sol, where women are empowered to ask one received what they truly want in love, life and business. Tune in thursday, said noon eastern time to learn tips and juicy secrets from inspiring women and men who, there to define their success, get inspired, stay motivated and to find your version of giant success with sexy body sake’s soul. Every thursday ad, men in new york times on talking alternative dot com. Are you suffering from aches and pains? Has traditional medicine let you down? Are you tired of taking toxic medications, then come to the double diamond wellness center and learn how our natural methods can help you to hell? Call us now at to one to seven to one eight, one eight three that’s to one to seven to one eight one eight three or find us on the web at www dot double diamond wellness dot com way. Look forward to serving you. You’re listening to talking alternative network at www dot talking alternative dot com, now broadcasting twenty four hours a day. This is tony martignetti athlete named host of tony martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent technology fund-raising compliance, social media, small and medium non-profits have needs in all these areas. My guests are expert in all these areas and mohr. Tony martignetti non-profit radio fridays one to two eastern on talking alternative broadcasting are you concerned about the future of your business for career? Would you like it all to just be better? Well, the way to do that is to better communication. And the best way to do that is training from the team at improving communications. This is larry sharp, host of the ivory tower radio program and director at improving communications. Does your office need better leadership, customer service sales or maybe better writing for speaking skills? Could they be better at dealing with confrontation conflicts, touchy subjects all are covered here at improving communications. If you’re in the new york city area, stop by one of our public classes or get your human resource is in touch with us. The website is improving communications, dot com that’s improving communications, dot com improve your professional environment. Be more effective, be happier. And make more money. Improving communications. That’s. The answer. Told you.
