Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening everybody,
and welcome to today's episode
of the NeverPeak Project Podcast.
I'm your host, Coach Ranger,
and in 2024, I walked 2,642 miles
across the United States of America.
Along that way, I met with dozens of entrepreneurs,
nonprofit leaders, and amazing community members
that are making a real difference in their communities.
And the reason for that was to really learn from them
and identify what it takes
to make a successful business or organization.
And in today's episode, I'm gonna be looking back
at my time as the president
of the Northern California Herpetological Society
in Sacramento, California.
And in today's episode,
we're gonna dive into three key principles
that you can take along in your journey starting today.
The first one is going to be the importance
of having a clear mission statement
for what it is that you do
and the transformation that you offer your clients.
The second is going to be the difference
between selling someone something
and enrolling them in a vision.
And third, it's going to be about setting clear agreements
and boundaries with those that you work with.
Even if you're a solopreneur,
you will still be working with people from time to time,
whether it's people in your networking groups
or vendors or customers.
I just wanna help make it clear
on how to set clear boundaries and agreements
with those that you come in contact with.
So sit back, relax, grab the beverage of your choice,
and let's dive in as we learn
about my top three takeaways
from working as the president
of the Northern California Herpetological Society.
So something that I think is extremely interesting
about the way that life works
is that people know you very differently
depending on where they met you.
So for a lot of people, I'm coach ranger.
For others, I'm the guy that walked across America.
But for some that knew me a few years ago,
I am the reptile guy.
In 2019, I adopted a ball python
from a reptile rescue in Sacramento
called the Northern California Herpetological Society.
For the rest of the episode,
I'm just gonna call it NCHS to make it easier.
But I adopted a ball python from NCHS.
I followed them on social media,
and I kind of thought that that was gonna be the end of it.
I got the ball python, his name is Scooter.
I still have him.
And he was a graduation gift for myself
from college at the time.
But a few months later, I was following them on social media
and I noticed that they had made a post
that they were looking for a publications director
to do their newsletter.
I expressed my interest.
I went to a few board meetings.
I ran for the position and I lost.
I ran for it to be the publications director for 2021.
And I lost to another gentleman
that had more experience doing newsletters,
that had more writing experience,
and really want to get into that world more.
So I ended up just being on as a board member at large,
just a general guy on the team,
but cut forward a few months later
and that guy had to leave for some reason,
the guy that I had lost to.
So I moved into that position.
And then a few months later, the president had to step down.
So then I moved into that position.
And then the programs director,
the event planner had to step down.
So again, I moved into that position.
And that's what I call my three P's period of being in NCHS.
And that's not quite what we're gonna be talking about,
but I'm gonna be talking about the three main lessons
that I learned during that time
and how it can apply to your business and solopreneurship.
So the very first thing that I want to hit on
is the importance of having a clear mission statement.
When I first got elected on as president,
one of the things that I noticed is our mission statement
and what folks thought we were there for
didn't quite align with what the board wanted to do.
Typically, herpetological societies
are more so conservation-based.
And at the time,
that is what our mission statement was focused on.
Whereas the board was more focused on rescue,
rehabilitation, and education.
So there's a little bit of a mismanagement and misstep
in terms of the real reason why we were there.
And that caused some issues when we were trying
to bring new members into the society,
when we were trying to ask donors for donations,
was we all kind of said something a little bit different.
And again, that just led to missed opportunities,
people being a little bit confused
oh, you know, person A said this,
but now you're saying that.
It doesn't really help you solidify anything.
So one of the things that I worked on as president
one of the very first things
was updating our mission statement.
And that is something that I help entrepreneurs,
community members, et cetera,
work through constantly throughout my coaching.
Not quite if getting a clear mission statement
for themselves, but understanding the purpose,
whether I am doing a 12 week coaching session with someone,
I am figuring out what their coaching purpose is.
If they say that something's important to them,
I ask them why.
I really want people to be clear on their purpose,
their why, or their mission
for whatever it is that they're doing.
And that is something that is very clear
and established in a lot of the nonprofit world.
All the nonprofits that I mentioned on my podcast
when I was walking across America,
every single one of them had a mission statement.
It was clear, concise, and specific.
So I wanna give you just a few tips
that I take into account when creating a mission statement.
The very first one is to make sure
that you are clear on the audience and people that you serve.
Who is your target demographic?
Who is your audience?
What is it that you really want to create for them?
What problem are you solving?
It's taking the person
and understanding what the end result for them is.
The other thing is being sure
that you're following the three principles
for creating a mission statement,
as outlined in the book, The Path by Lori Beth Jones.
And those three are to make sure
that your mission statement is no longer than one sentence,
that a 12-year-old could understand it,
and that you're able to recite it under extreme pressure.
Now, that is something that I took into account
when I created my mission statement
for my walk across the country.
My mission statement for that was to highlight,
learn from, and work with people across the United States
that are making a real difference in their communities.
It was something that I had to recite every single day
when I met someone new,
when they were asking me why I was doing this.
I recited it when I was in extreme heat,
extreme cold, in the rain,
when there's a bunch of traffic going by.
And when I would say that to kids,
they would be able to understand what it meant.
And it was one sentence,
there wasn't a lot of extra explanations or jargon,
and that was something that was able to quickly connect
with people all across the country.
I set it on the side of the road,
I set it on news stations, on radio shows, on podcasts,
written format, and people were able to quickly understand
what that meant and really figure out
which part of that worked for them the most,
which one they really resonated with.
Whereas for NCHS, the mission statement that we landed on
was to promote the wellbeing of reptiles and amphibians
through education, conservation, and rehabilitation.
Now that was something that anybody could understand.
That was something that when we set it at expos
or educational events,
or just to some random guy on the street,
it would give them a quick understanding
of what it is that we're about, what it is that we're due.
They can kind of fill in some gaps,
but it could lead into more conversation
about the exact mission of what we're trying to create.
Like, what do you mean by education?
What does that look like?
What about conservation?
What about rehabilitation?
It gives people these different pathways to go down
and talk about to the people, the prospects
that we're meeting at shows,
whether they're gonna be a member,
whether they're going to adopt or be a donor.
And same thing with my walk across the country,
to highlight, learn from, and work with.
Well, what do you mean by highlight?
Oh, I mean that I'm going to have some folks on my podcast,
on my social media, highlight, learn from.
I'm going to learn from them on those episodes.
I'm gonna ask them questions that I would wanna know about
so that I can apply to my business
and help folks later down the road.
And work with, I wanna be side by side with them.
I wanna volunteer.
I wanna get to really know the inner workings
of their organizations and how that could apply
to what I wanna create.
So those are the three main factors
when it comes to writing it.
But you really wanna make sure that you also are clear
on who and what you're offering folks.
The next lesson that I learned from the non-profit work
was to enroll, not sell.
Now, the difference between enrolling and selling
is that enrolling is really about inviting folks
to be a part of what you're trying to create.
You're focusing on shared values.
You're focused on shared vision as opposed to selling
is trying to get a product or a service in their hands
or life that could potentially help them.
Now, when it comes to enrollment
on the reptile non-profit side,
the biggest example of that was the membership
that we would sell.
We had a couple different models for it,
either a monthly or a yearly cost basis.
But really the whole idea was that we were bringing in people
that had shared values to us.
We were looking to bring in folks
that cared about proper husbandry,
folks that cared about conservation of wildlife,
and folks that wanted to make a difference
in a hobby and industry that they are actively a part of.
Now, when it comes to selling,
we didn't want to just push this down people's throats.
We didn't want it to be something
that we felt icky about, right?
And that was something that got brought up a lot
was that our people weren't salesmen.
They were keepers.
They were people that cared about husbandry.
They were the board members.
And I think something that really highlighted that was
at each of those events that we went to,
we would typically have a raffle basket.
And what I noticed was the two gentlemen,
the two of the husbands of the board members
that were fantastic at selling,
they wouldn't say, hey, buy this ticket.
They would say, hey, do you want to support our mission
of rescuing and rehabbing animals?
Now, that was a lot more of a,
I don't know, a hook than, hey, buy this ticket
so they can win this prize.
They were really able to wrap people in
based off of a shared value
and then bring them into that conversation.
And we sold hundreds and thousands of dollars
worth of raffle tickets that went straight
to helping the animals that were within our care.
Now, when it comes to applying this to your business,
I think the biggest thing is to share the things
that are important to you as an individual,
that share things that are important to you as a company,
and really show those values through the things
that you create in the public eye.
Something that I've noticed is companies
like Tony's Choco Lonely do this fantastically.
Their big thing is that they don't support child
and slave labor in the cacao industry
and the cacao suppliers that they work with.
They pay double or more the typical daily rate
of cacao farmers in those regions.
And they talk about this constantly on their social media.
They're not saying, hey, buy our chocolate, it's the best.
Hey, buy our chocolate, it tastes great.
They're saying, we are here for people
that wanna support what it is that we're trying to create,
which is fair and equitable trade and commerce
throughout the entire world.
We just so happen to do that by selling chocolate.
If you wanna be a part of that, fantastic,
here's our link, but more importantly,
we wanna make people aware of this issue that is happening.
And that is a fantastic example of socialpreneurship,
which I'll get into in another episode,
but really it's about showing the dream outcome
and vision that you wanna create
from your product or service
so that others can feel more empowered
when they buy that and partake in that.
It's about creating a community rather than just a customer.
And I think that that is something huge
when it comes to creating a movement,
which if you wanna learn more about that,
I would recommend Expert Secrets by Russell Brunson.
I'll put that in the show notes
so that you can check out the Amazon copy,
but really about creating a movement
around your service or product.
Now, moving into the final lesson that I learned
that I wanna share with you guys today
is the importance of making clear agreements.
Now, nonprofit work,
just like most any other organizational structure,
is really based around people working together.
And it's not just people working together,
it's people communicating with one another.
And that is something that is going to be a constant
throughout anybody's journey of solopreneurship,
entrepreneurship, whether you have a team,
whether you have virtual assistants,
being able to set clear agreements
and expectations with one another
is extremely important for creating the vision,
the mission that you're trying to achieve
because ambiguity often leads to confusion and inefficiency.
And I'm gonna pull out a little bit of a Ted Lasso quote
here, but really when it comes to setting agreements,
it's about being curious, not judgmental.
And when I say judgmental, I don't mean negative, right?
I mean that you're creating stories in your head
about what something means.
It's being able to ask questions,
ask clarifying questions about the events,
about the expectations.
That was something that came up for us a few times
was we'd be asked to do an educational event.
We would say, great, we'll do our normal setup.
The vendor would say, that's fantastic.
And then we would show up
and then the vendor would communicate with me
that that wasn't quite what they were expecting.
They were so happy with it,
but they were hoping it would be X, Y, and Z.
Then later on, what I would do is
when we would set up these educational events,
I would ask very specifically,
what do you expect from us during this event?
And that just led to so much more clarity, happier vendors,
greater, better presentations on our part
that really aligned with what the vendor
was trying to create for their audience.
Whether it was a school, another nonprofit,
or just another reptile expo,
it helped us make sure that we were hitting
all the points that we were supposed to hit.
And especially in the cases where there was a donation
or a monetary exchange involved,
we wanted to be sure that we were hitting
all the expectations extremely clear.
When it comes to the organizational side,
it's not just about working with the event director
with the vendor or the host,
it's the event director working with
the individual volunteers and other collaborators on it.
Whether we're working with another nonprofit
or just people on our board and volunteers,
being able to say, hey,
this is exactly where we're gonna be,
this is what we're gonna do.
Martha, you do this, Rebecca does this, et cetera,
down the line.
Being able to see exactly what everybody else is doing
and how to do it helps a ton.
Now, something that I saw that comes up
as like a little bit of an extra pro tip are bucket words.
And when I say bucket words,
those are words that are very small,
but they hold a lot inside of it.
So for example, if I wanted to say someone
is a good communicator,
and I just put good in front of communicator,
everybody kind of has different ideas of what that means.
But when you really look at that bucket
and you look in that good bucket,
you see that it means things like
they are able to form a coherent thought,
they're able to organize a speech,
they're able to have good eye contact,
they have a good way of expressing themselves,
et cetera, et cetera.
So that's something to be on the lookout for
in your organizational structure,
that whenever somebody uses a bucket word
like good, bad, exceptional,
you really ask them, what do they mean by that?
What does that look like to them?
That is something that after I started using it,
really changed the game in terms of understanding
what my fellow volunteers expected from me,
but also the people that we were working directly with.
So a modern day practical example of this
is the BRN group that I'm a part of,
the Business Referral Network
through the San Mateo County Chamber of Commerce.
Is the very first meeting I asked them,
what agreements would you like to set now?
So for example, some of those included,
we wanna start right on time,
we wanna be laser when we speak,
and we wanna get out at the time that we have agreed upon.
Very time focused group, I love that,
we're very efficient and down to the mission
of why we're there.
So that is something that I would recommend
that you set with your team as well,
is what agreements would we like to make with one another?
Because it's about setting those ahead of time,
but also talking about them so that as issues arise
or as agreements aren't being met,
people feel empowered to have that conversation with you,
to kind of get you back on track,
or you can initiate that conversation with them
to get where you want to go.
So when it really comes down to it,
I would say that those are my three main lessons
that I learned from being the president
of a nonprofit for a few years.
So whether you're running a rescue or a revenue based
business, the principles of leadership really do stay
the same when it comes to purpose driven management.
Take time to clarify your mission,
really enroll your audience in the world
that you wanna create and show how your product
or service fits into that vision,
and establish clear agreements with those
that you're in partnership with.
I really hope that the lessons and tips that I shared today
are impactful and useful for you on your journey
of creating the business that you wanna see in the world.
Let me know what your mission is,
go ahead and share it with me on Instagram,
I'm gonna post a carousel about today's episode.
Let me know what your mission is.
My Instagram handle is just at within range underscore
coaching, that information will be in the show notes.
And if you wanna learn more about aligning your business
with purpose, reach out to me.
I'd love to help you out on your entrepreneurial journey
to help you align with your purpose,
set the accountability structures to get there,
and work towards purpose driven action
so that your business and bottom line grows.
And that's all I have for today's episode.
This week on the podcast,
we have some extremely exciting things planned.
On Wednesday, I'm dropping an episode with Ty King
from the Arkansas Podcast Collaborative.
They're an amazing nonprofit that helps podcasters
all across the country build, monetize,
and grow their podcasts.
And on Friday, I'm going to be going down
to the Half Moon Bay Chamber of Commerce
to record a entrepreneurship update for everybody.
And I'm gonna be using the fancy new equipment
that Chris Lynn and her team have built up in the chamber.
So I'm hoping that we'll have some fantastic audio
and video for that episode.
But until then, remember that the best is yet to come,
as long as you're willing to make the decision
to never settle, never quit, and never peak.
I'll see you guys in the next episode.