Where I live, we’re experiencing the season’s first winter storms.  The weather people call it an “active weather pattern”!  Last week a teacher shared she needed winter gear for her students.  Some boots and some gloves.  A couple of weeks ago I bought pullups for the first time in what seemed like forever and last week I was buying size 11 boots and gloves that don’t get wet after one recess for what seemed like the first time in forever!  (Sidenote: I am grateful my wife Tarina does most of the shopping because it took me about 20 minutes just to even find the boots!)

Here’s the thing: every school needs this kind of partner.  Every school needs a partner they can reach out to with requests for winter gear for students with a need.

The last few Fridays we’ve answered questions about how to start helping a school.  Today's question: what’s next after you’ve met with the principal? 

Here’s three things to consider: 

• First, send a thank you note.  Follow up and thank the principal for her time.  Send a hand-written thank you note.  Send an email.  I prefer a handwritten note even though I have notoriously bad handwriting.
• Second, deliver a win.  We talked about this last week.  Identify something quick you can do for the school to show you’re in this.  If you were doing this now, you may offer to bring a lunch for teachers sometime before Christmas break.  If you’re starting in January, perhaps it’s a donation of Kleenex and hand sanitizer to help keep germs at bay. 
• Third, continue to plan for partnership.  After you deliver your win, what’s next?  What’s the next thing you can do to answer the “how can we help” question?  What are other ways you can help a school? 

​We’ll discuss those what’s next questions beginning next Friday.  If you ever want to insight about starting with helping a school, let me know in the comments.

The reason I had seller’s anxiety is simple enough.  I was afraid to answer one question.

The question came every time I talked with these companies you pay to help you publish.  The question: what’s your purpose with the book?

And my answer: I didn’t know. 

I didn’t have a purpose.  My only purpose was I said I was going to write a book and so I wrote a book.  But I didn’t know what I wanted with the book. 

Looking back I now know I wanted more.  It’s why I hired for a cover and for editing.  Otherwise I could have made the book a PDF and called it good.  But I wanted a book.  I wanted a product.  I wanted something tangible. 

I liked the image of the title “author” being applied to me. But I wanted to be an author without having to communicate I wanted to be an author.  I wanted the results without owning the process.  I wanted results without a purpose. 

Without a purpose, I played small. I shrugged my shoulders when others tried to be positive on the book.  I turned people away when they genuinely asked how the book was coming.  I played small and hid because I didn’t know what I was doing.  But more that now knowing what I was doing, I wasn’t clear on my purpose.

Not having a purpose for the book is the top reason why the kickstarter campaign failed and it’s also a mistake I hope to never repeat.

When in your life have you not known your purpose? Or when in your life have you known your purpose?  Let us know in the comments and you’ll be automatically entered in to win this week’s book giveaway.
 

How do I get started?

We continue our series on how to start helping a school and today we’re talking about getting called into the principal’s office!

The first time I met with a school’s principal to talk school partnerships was 12 years ago.  The principal and I joke about it now, but 12 years ago, we were both anxious heading into the meeting.  I had ideas about what our church provide but didn’t know how open the school would be.  The principal was intrigued about a community partner, but her experience with these types of meetings was they often failed to deliver and ended up a waste of time.

So once you have a meeting how can you prep meeting the principal?  If you’re a principal, how can you make the most of this first meeting?  Below are 5 tips for an effective meeting:

1. Ask one question- The most effective question a business or church can ask a school is “How can we help?”.  Ask this question and then take notes.  Principals can best prepare for this meeting by having concrete answers to this question.
2. Have a quick win- Before you meet, pick a “quick win” your business or church can give the school.  It could be an amount of money for a meal or supply need.  It could be time.  What you want to do here is take out the “I need to check” part of the meeting.  If you need to check with someone, then of course check.  But it’s much better to go into the meeting knowing what you can do. You then spend the meeting working on details instead of cutting the meeting short, checking with someone, and then emailing the principal.
3. Schedule the next meeting- End your first meeting to set up your next meeting.  When you’re starting out with a school, a second meeting is a good idea.
   
4. Do your homework- learn what you can about the school.  Is the school a Title school?  How long has the principal at the school?  Has the school been in the news for anything?  How many students are on free and reduced lunches?  What’s the ethnicity breakdown of the school?  These questions help you understand more about the school and allow you to make a good first impression
5. Identify your commitment- here’s a quick resource (link) to help you identify the commitment you’re providing to the school.  This resource gets you and the school on the same page and sets up the partnership for success where both sides know the commitment going in

 

Mondays are for mistakes!

Today’s mistake continues my failed Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for my book and today’s specific mistake: seller’s anxiety. 


My third mistake was or is something I call seller’s anxiety.  It’s this distorted perspective when it came to people giving me money for something I’ve done or in this case, I hadn’t done but was going to do. I think that’s a struggle for most creatives- and believe me, I am playing fast and loose with the word “creative” when describing myself!
Seller’s anxiety has a hard time answering these questions:

• How do you value a book? 
• How do you value a painting? 
• How do you value a song? A service A product? 

I know the value of something is whatever someone is willing to pay for it.  I get that.  But when my book came out- or when I was raising funds for it- it felt weird to charge people for it.  I’m sure some probably wanted it for free and I also understand that side too as there are times I think I should get something for free. 
Yet there were real bills to pay with the book, or in the kickstarter campaign, real money to raise.  There are publishing services where you pay them to help you publish your book.  They provide copy editing, developmental editing and other services to make sure your book is actually decent.  Those services cost money and so I tried to raise the money to have a better product.  But I was anxious.  I wasn’t confident enough or bold enough.

Next week I’ll share why I had seller’s anxiety.  

Mondays are for mistakes!

Today’s mistake continues my failed Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for my book and the specific mistake was this: I didn’t promote it enough. 

I sent out some emails. I published some info to my Facebook and Twitter pages.

But then I shied away from it.  I didn’t promote it enough. 

I worried too much about what people would think about me and if they thought I was over-promoting.
Or too selfish.
Or too self-centered.
​
So I stayed in the back and didn’t promote as much as I could. 

There's two 'mantras' slowly helping me get over this fear of self-promotion and maybe they can help you too:

1. If you’re not willing to promote yourself, why would others want to promote you?
2. Most folks are busy thinking about themselves to be worried about what they think about you

I can't take credit for those two ideas, but they've helped me with fear.   They are what I learned from a failed Kickstarter campaign.  And I am becoming less concerned with what people think about me and more concerned with the work and what I am trying to do with helping schools. 
  

How do I get started?

Quick story: I got an email from our school last week.  Two sisters recently experienced severe trauma and were having difficulty making it through the night without having accidents. The teacher asked for two air mattresses and some pullups.
Can you imagine? 
Can you imagine going to school after that kind of night?
Can you imagine going to school having experienced this?

Of course we said yes.  But I didn’t want to repeat my changing table mistake so we emailed back and forth about what specifically was needed and I got the air mattresses, a pump, and pullups.  It’s been awhile since I bought pullups!  It took less than 24 hours from the initial email to the school receiving the items. 

Every school needs this type of partner.  Every school needs businesses or churches or nonprofits who can meet a need at a moment’s notice.

So how do you get there?  How does a school get there?

Last week’s FAQ talked about needing a reason to start helping a school.  And that’s important- it’s so important that if you don’t have a reason, take some time right now to identify your reason for helping a school. 
When you have your reason for helping a school, how do you get going?
How do I pick a school?  How do I identify a school?  What do I do when I find a school to help?

All good questions.  We’ll discuss how to pick a school today.  Next Friday we’ll talk about what’s next once you pick a school.

3 ways to pick a school:

1. Location- If a school is located close to your business or church, this is a good place to start.  This was how I got started helping a school and how my church got started helping a school.  We started with schools closest to us.  Location also works if you’re a school and looking for a church or business partner.  What businesses or churches are closest to you?  Start with them.
2. Need- What schools in your community have the greatest needs?  What schools are Title schools?  What schools have large populations of students on free and reduced meals?  If you’re unsure, head to your school district’s website to get the data.  Or contact me and I’ll help you identify schools in your community who would benefit from your partnership.  This also works if you lead a school.  What needs do you have and can you communicate those needs in a way where a church or business can partner with you?  Your students may have needs for mentors.  Your teachers may have needs for appreciation or supplies.  Your building may have needs for paint or playground equipment.  Identifying your needs is a great way to start with a church or business partner.
3. Connection- last way is with a connection.  Maybe you’re a school principal and your church is looking to partner with a school.  Maybe you’re a business owner and your spouse teaches at a school who needs a partner.  Maybe you’re a pastor or a church leader and a majority of your church attends a certain school or lives in a certain neighborhood.  These connections are natural places to start partnering with a school or for a school to seek out a church or business partner.

You can always contact me for help on getting started.  I’d love to visit with you about how you can start helping a school or how your school can have a church or business partner so that when you have a student who needs air mattresses and pullups, you’ve got someone to call.   
 
 

Mondays are for mistakes!

Today’s mistake: ignoring good advice.  And this mistake likely cost me at least $4,000.

The story: In 2018 I did a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for my book and it was a failure.  Kickstarter is a crowdfunding platform- similar to GoFundMe- with the aim to bring creative projects to life.  I wanted to raise money for my book to pay for design, editing, printing and other expenses.

The campaign failed for several reasons and I’ll take the next couple Mondays to share my mistakes.

My first mistake was not doing a video for the campaign.  Before I set up my project, I did research on successful campaigns. One thing successful campaigns had was a video explaining the project. 

I skipped the video portion. 

I made a mistake in not doing the video because I decidedly chose not to follow one of Kickstarter’s best practices. 

I may have thought I was too good for it.
I was above it.
I didn’t need a video. 

But the truth is I was scared.  I was scared of the camera and video but I was also scared of putting myself out there. It was already taking what little risk-taking ability I had at that time to even attempt the campaign so I played it safe. 

Doing the campaign without the video satisfied my desire to look like I got my work out there without completely doing what was necessary to fund the project. 

When have you ignored a best practice? 

When have you not followed good advice? 

Let us know in the comments. 
 

How do I start helping a school?

A frequently asked question: how do I start?

My start with helping a school came when I asked this question: how come none of the parents in the neighborhood want to send their kids to the neighborhood school? 

12 years ago my oldest was about to start kindergarten.  There were 17 school aged children in our part of the neighborhood and only one went to the school less than a mile away from our neighborhood. 

Only 1! 

I started helping schools way back then because 16 out of 17 school age kiddos on my block did not go to the school closest to us.  I got involved with a school because I didn’t like seeing what was happening in my neighborhood. 

You need a reason to start helping a school. 

There’s many reasons to start helping a school. 

• Maybe you want to help your kids’ school
  
• Maybe you’re a teacher and you’d like a business to partner with you. To resource you.  To encourage you. 
  
• Maybe you’re a principal and you want more for your students and staff, but don’t feel like you have the resources or the time. 
  
• Maybe someone mentored you when you were younger and you want to pay it forward.
  
• Maybe you were on free and reduced meals when you were in school and know the stigma of not having enough to succeed. 
  
• Maybe you’re a church looking for a tangible way to serve your community and neighborhood. 
  
• Maybe you’re a business owner who wants to give back to people right in her own community.    

To help a school, you need your reason. 

What’s your reason to help a school? 

What’s a reason your school could use a partner? 

Let us know in the comments below.