Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode
of Vision Pros. I'm your host and coach, Fletcher
Ellingson. Today on the show, we've got Ginny
Waller. And Ginny Waller is from Waller Consulting,
also the brand that a lot of her clients refer
to her as, Capacity to Dream. Welcome to the
show. Thank you, Fletcher. It's good to be here.
Yeah. Capacity to Dream. I like that. Tell me
a little bit about what that means. So when I
first decided that I wanted to have the business,
the idea that I really came to is that for nonprofits,
what is our big mission? What's our big overall
focus is that we want to get to a point where
we're no longer needed in our world. And organizations,
especially nonprofits, tend to work on it. dime
and try to do all the things. And I wanted to
create a business that could help them build
that capacity so that they were able to actually
see their visions come to life and then be able
to walk away and go do something else and save
the world in another place. The idea behind it
was build capacity to dream the vision. I like
that. I like that. That's a neat goal. That's
a neat vision. Hey, before we get into things
much deeper, Start me off with a win. What's
something that's going well in your world, professionally
or personally? And the reason we like to do this
is we want to remind people there is plenty of
good still occurring in the world. And what's
right with the world is always available. What's
wrong with the world is always available. It's
where we put our focus. So lay it on us. What's
going well? Well, we have a lot of good things
going on in both the nonprofit sector as well
as my business. So with our business, we just
launched what we call upshift. It's our strategic
framework around strategic planning. And it's
pretty darn exciting. The idea is that strategic
planning typically has been done. in very much
of a bubble like if you hire me and you uh you're
you make post -its we're gonna go and we're gonna
talk to your staff and we're gonna talk to some
of your um financiers we're gonna talk to some
individuals that care about your post -its maybe
your vendors um and we're gonna hear from a variety
of people but we're really gonna be listening
to you right like you're the idea behind your
business is where we want to take it for strategic
planning well in the nonprofit sector It's not
true because you work for the public and it's
the community's organization. It's not your organization.
So really, we have designed strategic planning
so that it is focused on the client experience
or the customer experience. And we listen to
the customer and the client. It doesn't always
get you what you want if you're the CEO of your
nonprofit, but it's going to get what the community
wants and what the community needs. And so that's
really where we put our emphasis. So we just
launched Upshift, and that Upshift is all about
centering on the client voice and maybe the prospective
client voice, those voices we haven't heard from
before. Who are we not getting to that we need
to understand why we're not getting to them?
So we've launched this. We've been doing it now
for 10 years, but now we have it in a way that
we can package it for clients who may even be
on the smaller side and haven't before felt like
strategic planning was in their reach. So that's
been really exciting in the nonprofit sector
as a whole. What we're seeing is that organizations
for the first time ever are willing to look at
what they do really well. and lean into that
and then consolidate or figure out ways that
they can partner at a really high strategic level
with other organizations to do the other pieces.
So you know how this works. A long time ago,
nonprofits started picking up. Well, somebody
needs to feed the community and someone needs
to house them and someone needs to get their
to take care of the other main needs that we
need to do. And so they're doing all the things.
And what we've really been trying to encourage
for the past. five years or so is to have organizations
go after what they do really well which may be
feeding the homeless or feeding the hungry and
or the unhoused and then having someone else
handle other pieces that they do really well
and leaning into that and organizations are finally
doing it we're seeing actually community foundations
across the country willing to fund this and they're
interested in having these conversations with
organizations about And the strategic partnerships,
but also merger and acquisition and seeing how
that we can make ourselves bigger and better
for mission and vision focus and without losing
the impact. In fact, hopefully increasing impact
and doing it with less money, because, of course,
that's what we're dealing with. Yeah. Yeah. Neat.
Yeah. Some really exciting things are happening
and you're seeing some sounds like you're seeing
momentum in the space. Yeah. Yeah, I think, you
know, sometimes you need a little push and a
lot of the financial situation, especially with
organizations that have been heavily government
funded in the last 30 years, even since inception,
are now having to have these really hard conversations
around who we are and where are we going? Because
we no longer have the funding that we had before.
And that. You know, that's an opportunity that
has allowed itself to make force people's hand
at exploring maybe things they wouldn't have
done before. Partnerships they would not have
looked at before. Yeah. Yeah. Forcing the hand
into different levels of collaboration. Yeah.
Yeah. And really exciting because even partnerships
that heretofore may not have. even been on the
table that they would not have even partnered
with whether it's from the private sector or
maybe a non -profit that they isn't actually
not maybe necessarily value aligned we can help
them start to work with those organizations so
that they are having those conversations that
they weren't willing to have before That's pretty
exciting for me because when I go into a nonprofit,
oftentimes there's so much cleanup that needs
to be done. They're spread so thin. Staff are
really burned out. And the answer lies in all
of these partnerships in the community that are
also doing the work. They're just doing it in
different ways. And how can we bring that together,
be conveners and really have a larger conversation
to make a larger impact? Yeah, you know what
is abundantly clear as we're talking, and it's
no surprise because this, in my opinion, is how
life always works, but creation is always occurring
through language, right? So what you're really
getting at is new conversations because in conversations,
in language, creation... can occur and what i
heard you saying you in fact you use the word
people are needing to be willing and and the
willingness is to have that is to open their
mind expand their mind and have a have a different
conversation um and and as a result we can be
we can create newly would is that accurate Yeah,
I think that's really it. It's like people really
thinking about ways to do things differently.
Before, there was money. So why do we have to
do it differently? Let's keep doing it the same
way we've been doing it all of this time. But
now that there isn't any money, we really are
going to have to have that conversation. How
do we do this differently? And you know what?
It might be better. And that's pretty awesome.
Yeah, it could be better, right? It might look
very different, but it could be more impactful.
Exactly. There's a statement on your website
that I really like. It says, nonprofit is a tax
status, not a business model. Talk to me about
that. I'm not sure how much familiarity you have
with the nonprofit sector, Fletcher, but a lot
of nonprofits believe very much in that charity
mentality. Our clients are needy. We're needy.
We're going to take your dollar and we're going
to squeeze every bit out of it and we're going
to not pay our people and and we're gonna ask
everybody for a cut and try not to spend anything
to make the money we're just it's we're gonna
work really really at this low level and you
and i both know when you're building a business
you have to spend money you have to invest in
that business to build the capacity that you
need and oftentimes our clients adopt the same
mentality as they as their clients that they're
serving and that is what i'm always trying to
say that as You're a business like you still
have to function. And yes, you should make money.
And when I hear a nonprofit say, oh, but we're
nonprofit, we don't need to make money. What
do you want to be in business next year to help
your people? Well, then, yes, we need to make
money. We're just going to put it back into the
organization versus into your pocket. And so
it's really thinking differently about how what
nonprofit means and getting away from that charity
mentality that really is pervasive. And that's
why you get these. I always hear nonprofits say,
I need, we need a new marketing person and we
need a bus that takes people places. Well, you
actually don't need. We have a mission and your
clients are the ones who need it. So let's figure
out how we as a business can get them there,
can support that. Yeah. So good. Well, well said.
Again, I. can't help but to bring it, bring it
back to language again. You know, I think language
matters and the, and the more accurate we are
with it, like instead of saying we need, like,
how about we're creating, we're creating, we're
creating a new transportation opportunity for
our clients. We're creating a new department
head. We're create, you know, really because.
Because we have an emotional reaction to the
language that we use. And it also, if we say
that, then our mind begins to expect that that's
going to happen. So I love what you're talking
about, kind of reframing and reeducating some
of the nonprofit mentality and busting some of
those myths. very good yeah that's what i always
try to tell the clients is like you have the
solution to the societal problem like that's
amazing you don't need you have the solution
for your clients and they're the ones who need
so we just have to reframe that so yeah it really
goes back to language and thinking differently
but it actually affects the entire culture of
the organization exactly i mean it's going to
infiltrate everything that they do from you know
top down if it's done right Yeah, exactly. It
affects the culture of the organization. So,
you know, if you're watching this or listening
to this and in what she's saying is landing with
you, then, you know, really reach out to her,
connect, see what they can offer. Because what
what she's talking about is and again, it goes
back to your capacity to capacity to dream. You
know, frequently when a nonprofit begins it.
begins because there was a dream there was a
vision and then what happens is business occurs
and we weren't equipped to run a business but
we had this you know incredible and inspiring
vision and it's and it's beautiful but the business
is a different component that most of us are
not equipped for so you know jenny's jenny and
her business here are here to help you run more
efficiently run better uh step into that capacity
and the thing that i really love that you said
at the beginning of the show is you want to be
able to help people do this so well that ultimately
they can step away because that's that's that's
like the ultimate in my opinion that's the ultimate
success the ultimate accomplishment i set out
to do this thing it's now running well i can
go over here now and do what's next that's right
yeah because the people who go into non -profit
work They are problem solvers who have a passion
for trying to fix our world. I don't want you
centered on one issue for the rest of your life.
Like, let's get you spread out. Let's get you
solving all of them. And there is such opportunity
for that. But you get bogged down. I had I worked
with an organization. I used to work in the interpersonal
violence field a lot and still do with my clients.
And I would hear them say. But we're never going
to be out of business. There's always going to
be sexual violence. There is always going to
be domestic violence. And I'm like that right
there is the mentality that you have bogged into
as a nonprofit. You have forgotten that you were
created to offer a solution to a problem. Prevention
being one of those. And so if you're not believing
that you're going to get to that vision, you're
not. i mean you're just not going to get there
and then then we don't we can't take you and
put you into another project for prevention of
something else because you're so good at solving
that problem um i believe that firmly like within
my soul that organizations really have to believe
that that vision is attainable and they're there
to fix it yes yeah and again language i mean
when i hit that language again it's all about
like how they're How they're saying it, how they're
portraying it, what they're there for. Otherwise,
you're going to be in existence for another hundred
years and you're going to still be begging people
for money to keep your lights on. And we're going
to hear the same letters and the sob stories
about how it's all bad and dark everywhere. And
it's not it can be avoided and we can make we
can do better than that. Yeah. Yeah. Like you're
I think I think you said on your website, crisis
averted. Yes. don't have to live there. We don't
have to live in the fire. It's not, it's not,
that doesn't have to be that way. But I think
that's just the mentality of a lot of nonprofits.
Yeah. So again, if you're somebody that's watching
or listening to this and you are involved in
a nonprofit running a nonprofit or just involved
in it, you know, you, you may experience this
in your, your, in the culture. And so if, if
you feel like, Gosh, we need a reboot. We need
a reset. We need or we need a shot in the arm.
We need some new thinking. Then you got to reach
out to her. And what's the best way to connect
with you? Well, the best way is to go on my website.
So capacity to dream. That's the place to go.
You're going to get all kinds of resources. A
lot of the preaching that I have done today,
because I do love to I do love to bring people
to church. They'll see a lot of that on my website
as well. And a lot of free resources, because
I think it takes us. hearing things a few times,
especially when they're hard truth to be ready
to actually take that next step of doing the
thing and making the change. So there are a lot
of resources, a lot of places to get ways to
get in touch with me there, as well as to get
in touch with other folks that are doing the
same work and live by the same mentality as I
do in regards to what change can mean for the
nonprofit world. Cool, cool. So and the. Domain
name again is capacitytodream .com. Capacitytodream
.com. Go there, check it out. It's a great website.
It's really well put together. Lots of good information
there. And yeah, reach out. Start a conversation
and see what's possible. Jenny, so good to talk
with you today. Is there anything else you'd
like us to know before we wrap up? Well, I think
the last thing I would add is that nonprofits
right now are experiencing a lot of change, right?
We're losing money, large funders. We're losing
our staff. CEOs, the C -suite, are moving out
of the sector so fast. that you wouldn't believe
that there's something like 40 % turnover anticipated
over the course of the last year and next year.
Wow. So with that kind of change, you have an
opportunity here to do it, right? This is when
there's no leader at the helm that's specific,
that's tied to anything. Go for it. And at Water
Consulting, we can assist with that to seize
that opportunity and to take your organization
to a whole nother level you never dreamed of.
Yeah, and so thank you for that. And I want to,
again, spotlight something you just said. With
the level of transition that's happening in the
nonprofit sector right now, hear what she said.
It might be unsettling, but this is an opportunity.
So seize it. Love it. I love it. Thank you, Jenny,
for being on the show today. It's time now for
you all to get out there. Be a source of kindness.
Be a source of contribution. You do have something
to offer this world. And I believe in you. Thank
you for being here today. I'm really happy that
you tuned in to Vision Pros Live. I'm looking
forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes
continue to move forward. This is going to get
more and more fun. We'll have more and more engagement
as well. We'll invite people to participate in
the show. And thank you for giving us your time
and attention. Have an excellent time building
out your vision and becoming a Vision Pro. yourself.