 I'm really excited we have Ashley bright back with us. The message fixer I love it actually, I have bright yellow glasses that I almost wore today, but I had switched it up and go purple. But anyway, we're really excited to have Ashley back with us. And because we're talking about recovery and moving back into more live events more live meetings. It would be a great idea to bring Ashley back and talk about the five tips for better communication. Before we get going with that amazing conversation that I've been so looking forward to since we've all been in our bunkers and now we're getting ready to actually see somebody smell somebody, talk to somebody, figure out how they look below the screen. So make sure that we thank all of our presenting sponsors without you, we would not be here, having these amazing discussions as we are so fortunate to have at each and every day. Again, I'm Julia Patrick, CEO of the American nonprofit Academy, and I am not joined today by my intrepid co host, the amazing nonprofit nurture self Jared ransom, Jared is taking some well earned time off this week to kick off of summer. And we will be seeing her next week. Okay, Ashley, back to you my friend. Five tips for better communication. I suspect you probably have 50, but we've asked you to boil it down to narrative down. Not an easy thing to do not an easy thing to do. Okay, tip number one, know your audience. I just want to mean whether you're talking virtual or in person, you know, it comes down to knowing your audience inside and out because so many times I think as presenters as subject matter experts. We go in sort of looking at it from our perspective. And then when the audience doesn't get it or they don't do what we want, we somehow want to blame, you know them, because ultimately if you're not looking at kind of their perspective why are they there to listen to what are the challenges they're facing what are their pain points how can you bring value. If you're not looking at it from that standpoint and using you know a critical piece of human interaction which is empathy. You know, if you're not using those things then it just falls flat. Okay, you're just the points you're going to cover the language you use the imagery use all of those things can just fall flat if you're not really confident in who they are. I years ago with joke in a in a workshop I'd have you know people are coming and they're expecting a big juicy cheeseburger and fries. That's what they've expected and then you roll in with, you know, a very fancy, well I was going to say a very fancy plate of sushi. It's not that the sushi is not wonderful but it's not what they expected it's maybe not what they wanted. And so it just there's a there's a disconnect. And, and that's really why you just need to know your audience who you speak into what do they care about and how can you add value. You know it's interesting because I would imagine that their groups, whether we're meeting them in person, or virtually or hybrid, that they might not know what's going on, this is going to be new for them to. There's a there's such a shift in how we're behaving and what we're doing. So it's, it's got to be even harder than it was before to know your room to know your audience. True, and I think you know that's where that empathy really comes into play is is being kind of aware of what's going on around you so, for example, early on in the pandemic as things are starting to change businesses are closing down people working remotely. And I think that I think we were all highly aware of and so we would acknowledge that you know many of the conversations I'd have or I'd be part of would start with something akin to hey I know we're all we're all going through some challenging times etc etc. But then as we got a few months into it and people were adapting that was less of a topic and so it was more about we've adapted how are you thriving what's going on. And I think similarly as we now transition back to some sense of normalcy a new normal. I think it's it's having that same kind of radar on and acknowledging that that like hey, it's great to be back together isn't this amazing like even just little kind of moments like that. It just binds people together and this this is kind of a special moment we're in the same room we're in vicinity we're not you know remote and staring at our screens and our underwear. Well, I keep thinking about people that have like added to their teams who've made new relationships who do not know what they look like from you know here down. How tall they are. I mean, you have shoes. I didn't know you're into shoes. Yeah, I mean it's going to be kind of an interesting thing. Okay, now tip number two, we got to find out what that is because it's a big board. Bring up the big board. Get clear on your goal. Yes, this is a big one. And this one ties into that first point which is know your audience. So, you know, we often, you know, I always say to clients I say this in workshops that your number one goal should be to inspire action from your listener, whatever you know close a deal get a handshake get a meeting get a donation whatever that is. And so getting really clear on what is your goal for this piece of communication. And then you know based on what you know about your audience what are their challenges how can I add value, then what is my goal and if my goal is for them to adopt an idea, then I need to kind of rally everything I'm doing around that and so this gets into our third point I don't want to give it away but you know our third point which you know how do you curate the information you're sharing. Well it's all rallied around that goal so these points kind of build on one another, you know knowing who your audiences, what do they need how can I add value. And then what's my goal for this conversation and how do I align what I'm going to talk about specifically to that goal, because you know many times we get in this mindset of like well this is my one chance I'm going to just just share everything I'm so awesome and they're going to love it. Yes, and it's not that you're not awesome and it's not that you don't have great things to share. But the truth is that as human beings we can only consume so much information you know the truth is we can really remember, maybe three things. And you know when it comes right down to it you want to try and align those three things to one goal. And that's kind of really critical and I often used to joke that you know it's one goal it's not 10 goals. You know whenever whenever you start off a meeting with like here are 10 priorities for this meeting. You can already feel like okay this is going to go a little sideways there it's not bad to have points that ladder up to a core goal, but if you're going in with 10 goals it's a, it's a little bit of a challenge from the beginning so. I can think I can see what you're saying here because, because we have not been together that there's probably going to be this like, I got to get it all done I got to say it all now I got to you know it's that fire hose approach that you're just jamming everything in versus finding your cadence and yeah that's, I needed to hear this because I have a meeting this afternoon it's kind of important. And I have way too much I so thank you sir. Well, you're welcome and the other thing is to think about like, not only we're keeping up the mindset you know what is going on with her audience but where are they in the process. And so if this is for example an initial engagement with a new group of people they don't know you from Adam. So keep that in mind in terms of the amount of information share knowing that the whole point of this is I want them to let's say set up in a follow up meeting or a call or come to this next event. Good so share what's valuable for that first one, knowing that okay, half of them maybe they're going to come back for the second one and then I'll share this additional info and then that maybe leading leads to a volunteer opportunity or donations or join our board or whatever that goal is. You know, do your, your information accordingly it's much the way I think about websites. You know you don't want to fire hose someone in the beginning on the first page you want to let give them the key things that are going to get them into the next page and the next page now they're down to the third level. You can assume like hey they're really interested in this one topic so I'm going to give them the white paper all the detail and think about your talk that way as well. I love it. Okay, so one and two been good. And now we're on to three less is more so I see where you're going here. Yes, I was trying not to give this one away with. But this is I understand now. I think that's kind of what you're thinking here and, and you, you made the comment, three pieces, and I just did six, but three, three pieces of information are really going to be more something you can capture and you can retain. But you know I learned this years ago and I wish I could remember where but it's, it's almost like you imagine kind of you've got a core takeaway or core goal that you want someone to learn from this conversation. And then think about like what are the three pillars that kind of support that goal. And that's the way a really simple way to think about structuring your content. So if you have this one goal that you want people to take this one action. What are the three pieces of content or pillars that support that action. And in those we're addressing you know audience resistance to this point, you know how we're going to help them or benefit you know how we're going to solve their pain point etc etc. And that's usually, you know, the way you think about it because I mean we've all been in those meetings where you walk out and you're just like you're tired you're overwhelmed you don't know what you got out of it and then others where you're like just excited you can't wait to share you're like texting like oh my god I just spent time in this thing it's amazing you should learn from it. What's the difference when you you haven't been saturated haven't been firehosed, as you said. Yeah, well and I would imagine, you know, and again we're kind of been framing this conversation with the lens of recovery. You've got to respect that people traveling to a meeting going into an office environment, they're going to have a lot of external things going on that's actually going to even change up the whole dynamic more. I mean just, you know, they haven't dressed professionally. They're wearing high heels or learning how to rewalk and high heels maybe you know. Oh my god that's hilarious. Okay it's like you know my life was my secret life. Oh my god that's hilarious. That is so funny. Okay, now this is another part and step for tip for lead with emotion. This I'm kind of challenged with and I'm really interested to get your, your ideas on this I mean in the nonprofit sector. It is emotional. And we, that's part of what we do and sometimes I think we pray on on that aspect of it for right or for wrong. So talk to us about lead with emotion. Sure, so it's, I think that that maybe you know it's interesting I always I always sort of found this this dynamic really interesting that when I work with for profit organizations, they tend to want to lead with logic. You know, and then nonprofits want to lead with emotion and I've often joked that like I wish the for profits could learn a lot from the nonprofits and vice versa. Because I think I think there's a lot of strategic thinking that for profits do that I wish some of my nonprofit clients were thinking about. But again, regardless of nonprofit for profit we're all human beings. And so when I say emotion you know the core thing and this is not a revolutionary idea but you know story. It is a key element of the way we communicate as human beings going back to, you know, our ancestors and sit around a campfire and all that stuff. And so it's emotion. And you know, one of the things I talk about in my workshops is there's a there's a great book by a guy named Daniel Kahneman. It's called think fast and slow. And in it he talks about essentially there's two different systems going on in the brain. And one which is that, you know that fight or flight mechanism it reacts without thinking it controls our breathing and our heart rate and all those things. But then there's system to which is sort of set aside for that complex calculations you know think doing your taxes doing math, you know anything complicated. And so the thing is that the way we process information and the reason why so many meetings and presentations are boring and confusing is because they're rooted in logic, and they're just all about taxing system to brain. And system to does not like to do that I mean think it's sort of like having a workout if you don't have to work out you don't want to write our bodies will say no we're good. And so, you know, when you lead with emotion meaning engage that system one first, it kind of lets you in, you know as a listener it brings them in, you lean forward because you want to learn more, you're engaged it's never too as common ground, you know you start to create that you're shrinking that gap between you and your your listener. And so once you do that it's kind of like it opens up sort of the floodgates to a certain extent. Now they're engaged, they're interested and so now, since we do make decisions with emotion and logic, you're now starting to back that up so emotionally we get someone engaged with a great story. And then we back it up with some logic some data some evidence so that now if I'm learning about an organization. I'm now, I'm now more connected I've built that trust because I've learned about how they're bringing value, how they're impacting people's lives, how they're changing the lives of people in my community. And then now I'm hearing how they're backing it up in terms of the way their programs actually work what's the results what's the output. And that's kind of where you start to find that balance between that emotion and logic. So we didn't talk about this but vulnerability. This is something that's very challenging but you know as a speaker. There's nothing better than a little bit of vulnerability, a little giving of yourself that the audience will respond to. And you know, it's it's something fun it's funny enough when when you see CEOs and business leaders do it it's often written about you know like oh my God, so vulnerable. In the nonprofit space we kind of take it for granted that that's, you know that's that's very evident but again, we're all human beings we're all communicating. And so, you know how do we find that balance with emotion and logic and I always say lead with emotion it opens the door to everything else so interesting. I like that and I think that it's kind of an interesting aspect of where we've all been. And it seems to me that for a lot of our meetings are in person events. We're going to have to notch out some time for this emotional part of what did you do during the recovery or during cobit or how have you been impacted, you know there's so many suffered loss. We have the social justice pandemic we have economic major major economic, you know issues we have political divide. It's it seems to me like maybe this is going to be one of those things that's a little tricky to walk. I agree there's going to be some challenges and I think there's going to be a new or a need for a new approach to kind of icebreakers if you will know in some things you know can you. You know, is there a fun way for people to share kind of the the crazy things that happened during the pandemic, you know, or the just the way they adapted. It doesn't it doesn't always you know I think that yes, obviously there are some very serious things that happen there's a very serious things that were revealed, and people went through some very serious things that can't be overlooked but there was also a lot of humor a lot of fun times a lot of family moments and you know so it's kind of finding that balance. I love that you said that because I think that's true I mean I right off the top of my head I've noticed that I've been. I mean just literally in the past two weeks. I've had out of office meetings. You know, more social events, and people have been talking about food, because it seems like it's a. And a lot of you know men and women saying, I learned how to bake bread that seems like you know if you just like go around the rooms you're hearing people, I started gardening or you know, to your point kind of like safe pieces of information that can you know discuss it's finding that universal thread, you know because because we've all been through this in different ways but there's that universal experience that can tie it all together I mean my kids have been baking my my oldest as he wants to he's now he's like I want to learn how to make bagels. And so that's going to be one of our tasks this week over the summer. I love it. I love it. It's kind of an interesting thing I'm thrilled that you brought that up. Okay, now this is going to be really kind of interesting because I have no idea where you're going with this and tip number five get loud and get moving. Yes. So, again, these are applicable, virtually, or in person but definitely in person this this will resonate more. Point number one there get loud. Okay, we forget sometimes that our voice is our instrument for communication, and it has as we've seen from you know opera and music and all sorts of things that there's an incredible range. And so, even more so when you're in a physical environment getting really comfortable with your voice, how to project that voice the highs and lows the tones the the inflection. And just really starting to use that and it's surprising sometimes I work with clients and they're not used to hearing their own voice. And so especially if they're in a physical environment or they're mic'd up and they hear their their voice kind of echoing back. It can send them into sort of further anxiety about that moment. Yeah. And so I always say when we're rehearsing to, you know, don't say it in your head say it out loud you know if you have to say it in the shower or your car or wherever it is. So get comfortable with it and learn how to how to project your voice and the highs and lows and all those things so that's point number one get loud. And then point number two get moving. And so especially if you're in a physical environment and you're seeing I'm doing a lot of stuff with my hands so still clickable but in a physical environment. Moving around is an incredibly valuable tool for a few different reasons one, it will help your audience stay engaged. When you think of being in grade school and you didn't know the answer and so when the teacher starts to look around or move around to look for someone to volunteer, everyone gets really small. And so we're going to use that principle for good for benefit in our conversation, and you move around because people are kind of, you know, they're scanning they're keeping an eye on you. So that's a really important point. Also, the perception when someone moves around, it's perceived as confidence. You know, because, because it's all about body language I mean there's some study somewhere I don't know where it is that like 70% of what people take away from you is the body language and the way you're moving around your gestures. And so if you're very small and kind of anchored in one spot that conveys something to your audience, even if what you're talking about is incredibly valuable and significant. But imagine now if you're saying all those valuable significant things but you're also moving around and landing that message so you move and you make eye contact with your audience and land a message and then you move across and land another message and then you land it in the middle. And that's really powerful and then another great thing and this is something again I talked to my clients about in rehearsals is we have that you know I talked about system one and system two well system one is kicking in when that you know that fight or flight that anxiety that nervous energy that comes when you're going to speak. And when you see people fidgeting and they don't know what to do with their hands it's because that energy is coursing through their body trying to find a place to go. Because really your body is saying, you're about to die I'm going to try and make you help you survive so you're going to be able to climb a tree jump over a fence whatever that is right. So instead, if you get comfortable moving around, it gives that energy a place to go so that you're less fidgety you're less nervous. And the great thing is that to you it's helping control that anxiety but to your audience it's perceived as confidence and engagement. And so that was sort of a little esoteric in the way I described it there which was on purpose but yes once you unpack it, get loud and get moving. So I think this is in the performance. I love it. You know, I think this has been super timely because so many of us are going to be all of a sudden thrown into situations where we are convening with our teams where we are trying to present our new ideas whether it be around a board table or in front of the audience on the stage. I mean you know this more than anybody. The pitch concept for fun, you know, fun development, even fundraising is just really become a hot button and something that so many groups are doing before we let you go because we don't have much time. So you shared off camera and I hope you will share with our viewers today. You have a really interesting story that just broke and I realize it's sensitive so you're not going to be able to identify the folks that you're talking about, but will you share with us. What you just learned in the past. Certainly, certainly so I had the great pleasure of meeting three different nonprofit leaders about six weeks ago. And they reached out and said, we've been shortlisted for this pitch this grant it's going to be great. We're terrified we don't know what to do we don't know where to start. And so we work together to and essentially what it was it was a grant pitch for a quarter of a million dollars. And, you know, so nothing, you know, go big or go home. The challenge was not only were they going to have to pitch in a particular timeframe, but also they were three different organizations that had teamed up for this program that they were pitching. And so it was a lot of challenging information and so worked with them to help identify again, much like what we talked about. What was the goal, who are the people they're going to be evaluating this. How do you align that content to really showcase the real opportunity with this program. And then how do you give each of those three organizations ample do so you can really see how they're contributing value. And then in the performance piece of it how do you allow each of those three nonprofit leaders to be able to speak. In this case it was on video, but nonetheless they were transitioning from one speaker to the next and the next and then back as they move through this and I was so excited because not only was it amazing to work with them and learn more about the program but I literally found out last night in an email that they didn't even want. And amazing way to kick things off with a quarter of a million dollar grant to put together program that again I can't reveal but it's going to have so much value and impact for the community that they serve and I believe, really create a milestone that will be something other communities and other regions in the country going to look at as a model to to adopt and start to grow themselves to to have more impact so I love that because they really going in we're like well I don't know. I'm sure for you know there was a there was a bit of a like underdog quality to the conversation, and I kept saying like you guys are going to knock it out of the park, I believe in you and so there you go so a reminder that you know pitching is no small feat, but the outcomes can be amazing. And so every time you get a chance to communicate with someone inspire action and and put your best foot forward so. Wow, it's super cool and you know, thank you for sharing that I know that these things are tenuous and that you have to be you have to tread lightly and all of that but that's really exciting and I. Again, actually I mean you know this better than anyone but this is really captured the attention of funders and donors and we're going to see more and more of the style. And it's a competitive nature that nonprofits are sometimes extremely uncomfortable with, but shoot it just like every day, I know just coming to my office, you know the emails about you know these pitches that are available and or funding opportunities, but it is being structured through a pitch. Yeah, and you know it really levels the playing field in terms of whether you're talking about nonprofits or for profits. Yeah, I work with them all and they all have to go through this rigor they all have to jump through hoops and check all the boxes and usually it includes some sort of a pitch. And, and when they do it right. That's the beginning of something amazing so. I love it. Well actually this has been a great way to start off our week. I want everybody to see Ashley's information again here. Ashley bright Ashley bright presents. Check out his website he's got some great information on it. And just today, the five tips that he shared with us about communication. Wow those are gems. I know that we just scratched the surface and our very short period of time today but Ashley thank you so much for coming on the nonprofit show and sharing your time and talent with us. Again I'm Julia Patrick CEO of the American nonprofit Academy. I have not been joined today by my co host Jarrett ransom. She's taking a well earned vacation this week. Again we want to thank all of our presenting sponsors that you we would not be here having these amazing conversations that we've had, not only today, but Ashley, this is our 300 and first episode. I'm clapping. Thank you. Thank you. We, we actually celebrated our 300 episode last Friday so that's crazy. And of course we are not done. Today, we are launching a new show called fundraising events TV. My co host is Jason Allen champion, a former hg TV star. He has been involved in the nonprofit landscape his entire life. He's out of the East Coast, and we are going to be really delving into just the topic of fundraising events. So from golf to galas from barns to ballroom ballrooms, we're going to be talking about it all. So join us on fundraising events TV we'd love to see you. Hey, Ashley, you've totally inspired me. I have a big meeting this afternoon. This is like the honest truth. I'm going to go back, and I'm going to call all of the stuff that I was going to jam at these people. Well, I'm glad to hear that and I want to thank you for the second opportunity to appear on your show and I thank you for the opportunity I thank you and Jared for the work that you guys are doing to give voice to nonprofits and lend tips and knowledge. We can all benefit and help each other so thank you. Well, thank you you are always a delight to talk with. And as we end the show we want to remind everybody that way that we end every show. And that is to stay well, so you can do well. We'll see you back here tomorrow everyone.