 So we welcome you to the non-profit show. Thanks so much for being here. Thanks Julia. It's really an exciting thing I have tremendous respect for anyone who's ever written a book and so we're gonna talk about that and dig in to this Before we get going. I want to make sure that we welcome folks from all over the world that are joining us today normally you would see us coming to you from our studio and We would have a lot of other different things going on But this is kind of an exciting time if you just joined us again I'm Julia Patrick with the American Non-profit Academy My co-host Jarrett Ransom will be back on with us tomorrow We want to make sure we thank all of our presenting sponsors blue meringue Fundraising Academy at National University your part-time controller be generous American Non-profit Academy staffing boutique non-profit thought leader and then the non-profit nerd Okay, all right So I gotta say One cause has put you into the philanthropic spotlight First before we get into your book Talk to us about what your work and your leadership at one cause Looks like and how you've navigated to writing So again, thank you for having me today Julia. It's really a pleasure to be here and to be in front of all of your supporters, so I'm the CEO of one cause and we make and sell digital fundraising solutions for nonprofits We have about 6,000 active fundraising subscriptions right now And we're across the country and since our founding in 2008 We've helped raise about four billion dollars for our customers on the fundraising platform So we're really humbled by that. We're really excited by that We've been going at it for 14 years and I have been at the helm as CEO for eight years now After about a 30 year career in executive leadership role. I've done technology finance venture capital and I really answered a call I answered a call to do more to pursue mission to pursue purpose And that's really what brought me to one cause we were called we were called bid pal Back in the day when I first joined but we've been we've been at it for again. I've been at it for eight years and then We found ourselves in the middle of this global pandemic And and thank you for asking about how did I become an author because what I would call myself is an accidental author I didn't set out to write this book the book that we didn't set out to to do this at the onset We set out to basically or I set out to create An ongoing update for my team and and a communication an open communication Of how we were doing as a company how we were helping our nonprofit customers get back on their feet after that horrible March 14th weekend where we had you know 200 planned events That we were going to support which went to zero and the same week after that And then we had to go back with then we had to go to work essentially getting everyone converted over to virtual and online and really changing the game on us You know, I'm fascinated that of all the words that you could have chosen to entitle your book you use the word fearless and I've got to ask you about that because I've been so intrigued um by your story And I love that you use the phrase you're an accidental author Because you're not accidental as a leader by any stretch of the imagination So marry those two words for me accidental and fearless. How did you come up with that? So The word fearless we've been using for years in a hashtag fearless fundraisers in connection with our annual raise conference and so we've really been Again using that word year after year to describe just Being fearless and going out there and just and getting it done and making it happen Well, again the pandemic created this this Another this huge obstacle in our way, right? And the last thing that we could do was show fear and and and so and so the rallying call here Was let's be fearless about how we go about It and and julia. It's about our daily lives. It was about because we were balancing Kids staying home from school. We were balancing spouses working in dining on dining room tables in in and kitchen tables We were in a situation where we had just never Experienced that before and so again being fearless is about you know What I will use is another word that that CEOs don't like to use a lot and that's vulnerability or being vulnerable Is right because but but for me being vulnerable was to say I don't have all the answers But you can be vulnerable and still be fearless You can be vulnerable and and create a vision and say listen I don't have all the answers We're going to figure this out together and I said something about CEOs and CEOs We use code words and the code words that we were using at the time were things like there's no playbook for this Right. How many times did you hear that? How many times did I say that? I know Or this is truly unprecedented. What what we met was wow, we've never seen this before We really don't know exactly what to do But we're just going to create a plan and we're going to keep going and we're going to keep Uh keep keep our our our team going with the vision that we can paint for them and again What I say that it's not it's not it's not and I use the word hope here a lot to julia And so it's hope but it's not a false hope that's based on just some sort of wish It's a hope based on a vision for the future and a plan An action towards that plan that really can can kind of get behind the promise of hope You know, Steve, I'm fascinated by by the direction of this conversation and it also makes me think that and I'd love to get your feedback on this it probably Is a path of leadership That you have imbued your teams with prior I mean a lot of the things that I'm hearing you say I suspect This is how you were already leading. Would you agree with that or did you see a change? Or did you just have to kind of articulate it in a little bit of a different way? I think I think you're right. I think you're spot on with the articulation So it was the way that we were leading or that I was leading in any event And the weekly updates really gave me the platform for communicating that and really Clarifying that as a message and everyone who works for me knows that one of the one of my quotes about leadership that I love Is a good leader is one who inspires others to lead And so from my perspective and and as I communicate to my team Everyone is a leader of your own domain of your own responsibilities And so you can be a leader at your home. You can be a leader in your department You don't have to be the ceo To be a leader and so that was my philosophy and to your point The the weekly update updates gave me the the platform for communicating that on a broader scale and and I tell you, you know I'm thinking back to those days in the very beginning when I made this commitment and I made this commitment of weekly Transparent communication to the team for our way back from the pandemic and it was I didn't realize it at the time I didn't know we were going to go two two years If someone was that hey Steve, you have to commit for two years to a weekly update. I probably said no way I can't do that Well, Steve, I'll tell you I committed to do the non-profit show for two weeks Because I was the brain surgeon that said how long can a panda go on come on Well, we're you know modern time. We live in the scientific age. We're gonna knock this, you know And yeah, and now we are in almost three years with the non-profit show because literally that daily communication that we chose to do Very similar to what you you were saying, you know, we spent a lot of time on cameras saying We don't know the path forward, but we know our work has to continue We know our work is important and we have to To rally the troops and pull together in a in a fearless manner and I think it's fascinating Now, let me ask you about another word that you use And this is actually in the subtitle of your new book fearless looking Our leadership yet leadership lessons At the crossroads talk to me about what the crossroads are and were for you because I suspect That can be a little different for everyone And and you know so so literal definition crossroads a decision pointer, you know A point at which you have to make a decision to go one way or the other and and I want to touch on an earlier point that you made because it was really one of the driving forces for one cause as well We realized that that that our continued existence and and thriving Was just was not just about one cause it was about the thousands of nonprofits and the causes that they that they were were Leading and so this was just our our success was so much was was important to us But it was so important for the broader Non-profit world I mean we were responsible for for for helping about 500 million dollars of fundraising happen in that 12 month period from march to march And and it was so important for us to continue and so so crossroads It never was a decision to say Oh, you know, are we really going to focus on on growing and surviving or are we just going to pack up in our tent and go home That was never the the crossroads, but we we hit a crossroads every day And and our customers were hitting in crossroads every day and their donors were hitting a crossroads every day Do I give do I not give do I fully support? Do I not fully support to do we have that event? Do we not have the event if we're not going to have the event Do we do virtual? Do we do online? Do we just do outreach through our crm like every single day? There was a crossroads in a decision that had to be made about how do we keep these these these organizations and their mission moving forward right You know, it's such an interesting thing Steve because I think um in the beginning of the pandemic and I think it's such an interesting aspect to to discuss And that is that that sense of things are bad. We're going to we're going to pump the brakes and we're going to you know to your to your Description, you know ceo speak for we're going to stop or pause Or we're going to lean in and we're going to push hard and and it seems to me and I'd love to get your feedback on this That we saw two different approaches with leadership And I would argue that it's based on fear You know the fear of pushing forward and failing taking risk or or stepping back And saying yeah, we just need to kind of lay low everybody Take a couple weeks off and then we'll re gather and I'm wondering what your thoughts are about that now that you have You know several several years to look at that. Yeah So as I think as I think about that there was not a moment Where we thought of pausing there was not a moment where we thought of taking a step back Every moment was driving forward coming up with new solutions And in fact a couple of weeks into the pandemic We had an executive team meeting and we decided to take all of the technical investment that we were making in a new product And and and channeling it towards creating a new product specifically for the pandemic we called it the virtual event center and by september We were releasing the virtual event center That was custom made for virtual fundraising. So we made that Absolutely positive decision to move forward and create a a purpose built solution for virtual fundraising And so and again, we felt the same and and that's why I love the book That's why I love how the book turned out the book is my name is on the front And I'm an author, okay But the book is not about steve johns It's not and it's about one cause but it's about One cause and our customers and their donors Rallying together getting through these unprecedented times and i'm going to use that word I know that everyone doesn't like to use that word Getting through these unprecedented times Together and that's the story that unfolds in in fearless and that's why when we started to read manuscript after manuscript I and I started to really feel like this is a book that's coming together It's telling a story that we can see all we can see each other in and it's it's a story of how we Survive but I will also add that it's a story for day to day crisis It's a date It's a story for day to day management of change and and being resilient in an overcoming adversity and Managing time and being mindful all of these things that we need When when when just when we get up in the morning not not even having to deal with a global pandemic, right? You know as um, I come to you today from Phoenix, Arizona and again I say thanks to creighton medical university. He's allowed me to broadcast From their amazing new facility I'm here today to Be part of an amazing and fearless gift from the rob and melanie walton foundation that will Actually endow the ceo position of st. Vincent de paul, which is a A human welfare organization the largest in the planet based here in my community That feeds house and heals through a medical Center and an amazing work in the fifth largest city in america And I I'm I'm so inspired by your book and I'm so inspired by The conversation because this is what it's all about it is about fearless leadership and taking risk And that crisis never goes away for the nonprofit sector It's a luxury to to set back and say well now's not a good time in the nonprofit sector. We can't do that We need to get up every day and serve The most vulnerable of our of our society and so from I was very very fortunate to get some advance Chapters of your book and through your website, which is amazing And it is about understanding that that commitment to things that you might not see But ultimately impact others in an incredible way It had to be personally devastating for you and your team to watch some of this work go Knowing all of these clients that you have a really that weekend I mean as you think about march 14th, that's that's such a kickoff weekend Fundraising huge. It's one of the big huge and then and across the country and to look At those clients and say we don't know what to do. How did that really transform you? Well, it transformed me it transformed the company and I think it transformed our customers and their donors We all had to go about things in a different way And so all the rules the rules were just thrown away And and we basically had to all start from scratch now the good news for us was we had actually helped Non-profits fundraised through crisis before or through disaster So but it was never on a global scale was always on a regional scale. So we had helped organizations, let's say in the gulf states overcome Hurricanes and we had helped organizations on the west coast overcome the disasters of fires that got in the way of fundraising and fundraising events and help kind of Push through that in terms of we have to get through that and we have to focus on what's important We have to focus on continuing to fundraise while We were faced with these these disasters that are happening around us and it's It's a monumental challenge, but we one that we have to step up to so again to your question I think it changed and transformed all of us our way of thinking and we threw all of our old ways of thinking out And we came up with new ways of thinking and again, that's one of the inspiring things for me Particularly with some of the customers and our donors. There's one organization that's focused on the homelessness cause And in order to honor social distancing, but still had an in-person event They had a night where they all slept in their cars As a fun like as an in-person fundraising event where they all slept in their cars And they called it a night in the cold or something like that And it was just those types of stories that continue to inspire me continue to inspire us to keep going And and just be again and be amazed at the different ways that people were using our software our digital solutions to Continue to fundraise and as I said Several hundred millions of dollars raised in the face of the global pandemic. It's just remarkable You know, it's it's fascinating to me And I'm I'm looking at you with that fabulous book cover Behind you and I'm just inspired by that word fearless And I find that so much of what we've been talking about this morning His revolt back to that core concept And I'd love in our final moments to chat with you About the concept of fear and risk because it seems to me in our sector Even though we're doing the work of the angels We are damn Stubborn when it comes to adopting new things taking risk and you're a technology company You've floated in that world Why is it so hard for our sector to embrace technology? So I think In a broader sense, it's how do people or what holds people back in terms of fear and and and to your point about risk taking And I think that we we all have to I think look at these challenges in a different in a different way And I think it's mindset And what what I like to and I call this kind of this the the secret to life And the secret to life is one of these The secret to life is you can't you can't control The outside factors that come to you you can't control that But what you can do in the next moment is decide what you're going to do next And I think if we all know and embrace that then we have no fear because I can't I'm not going to worry about what's coming at me I I'm not going to to to wring my hands about it. I'm not going to complain about it I'm not going to say life's not fair. I'm just going to see okay That's coming at me and I have no control over that but I have 100 control On what I do next and I think for me That's what gives me the fearlessness to move forward the fearlessness to say I know what I need to do next And I and I'm not going to worry about what's coming at me that I can't control But I am going to focus on what I can control and to me. That's the key I love that. I think that is incredible wisdom Especially in the nonprofit sector where so many of us work in a crisis mode continuously and it's very very hard to think outside that present moment and to take reflection or time to Slow our brains and our bodies enough to to look forward. So I love that you said that I think that's an incredible lesson Now I got to ask this question Would you have come up with this approach and this wisdom to being fearless without the pandemic? I would say I would say that that and everyone who knows me Knows I'm always looking for pandemic silver linings or kovat And so I would say that this is a silver lining that came with the pandemic It was it was an opportunity for me To to your point to slow down a little bit And and communicate what I was thinking Communicate what I think others to put that empathy hat on and you know and and really put myself in someone else's shoes and say I didn't have young kids at home, but I can only imagine what you're going through I I I didn't have that but but to write about things like giving people back the gift of time through better time management and managing that matrix of urgent and important in a way that they can Give themselves the gift of time back So I would say that that so many bad things came with the pandemic so many bad things came with kovat But one of the silver linings for me personally and I think hopefully For whoever buys fearless is that they can see the leadership lessons that we learned During the pandemic that we were able to to to communicate and like you said take that time that moment And just realize that we can get through we can get through this together We have to be resilient in the face of all of the adversity that's coming at us. But again my message was always We got this and we're in it together Yeah, well it has been a delight to have you on the nonprofit show today I'm so honored that you would take this time and and share with us your reflections One cause is really an amazing organization just watching them from afar seeing what they've been able to do And it's it's been really cool to be honest to actually then find that nexus between you your writing and and the organization fearless is actually Being printed right now, right? I mean it's it's like coming out So we're hoping to get it So if you go to fearless fundraisers.com You can we're taking pre-orders again fearless fundraisers.com. Hopefully we'll have a link for that We'll be taking pre-orders for that and we hope to have physical copies of the book in time for the holiday season Awesome. Awesome. You know from the advanced copy Work that I was able to get I've got a safety. I think that this could be a really Neat group read for a nonprofit Or an organization and I would love to float that Because I think that it is the here and then now it's the things that are going on But at the end of the day, it's a structure and discussion about how we serve And and how we deal with crisis It's it's I think a really great read and I think it could be Something that's really helpful for an organization to come together With you know, reading a chapter a week or something like that and then coming back to your team and discussing it Might be one of those Amazing lessons. So I'd really encourage our viewers and our listeners To to consider that because it's it's I'm very very impressed. I really really am so Again, thank you so much for joining us today. I'm Julia Patrick. I want to give my gratitude to Creighton University Medical School who's hosting us today at their amazing new campus Based in Phoenix, Arizona Again, the nonprofit show comes to you on behalf of so many of our wonderful partners Blumerang Fundraising Academy at National University staffing boutique your part-time Controller the nonprofit nerd be generous And nonprofit thought leader again. These are the folks that come to that allow us to come to you every day We Steve we are coming up very closely on our 650th episode. Wow, which is amazing considering I witnessed to you I thought this was a two-week gig But anyway, um, yes, congrats on that Thank you and congratulations on writing a book. That's damned hard Thank you. Thank you so much and thanks for having me today. Hey, it's been great I remember everybody you can access our archives if you want to share this episode Through Roku amazon fire tv youtube vimeo and we're now available on podcast So wherever you like to consume your content qs up the nonprofit show and you'll get to be able to hear um From a lot of different thought leaders as we have today. I want to again, thank everyone for joining us Steve, I can't wait to hold that book in my hand. Me too All right, everybody. Thanks so much for joining the nonprofit show We'll see you again tomorrow and to remember for ourselves our listeners our viewers our guests To stay well So you can do well. We'll see you again everyone