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:
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.
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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:
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:
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. How do I get started?
We’re continuing this series on how to start helping a school. Last week we discussed 3 ways to pick a school. Two weeks ago we talked about needing a reason to start helping a school. Once you pick a school, you’re ready to contact the school. 12 years ago I sent an email (similar to the guide below) to the principal of the school we picked. I followed this guide and it got me a meeting with the principal. Two months after the meeting, I discovered the principal was reassigned to a different school! So, I sent a second, similar email to a different principal and got a meeting with her that would lead to a great partnership. You can certainly contact the school on your own. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to email a school. And plenty of my emails are ignored all of the time! But you may find it helpful to have a guide:
So I developed this quick guide to help. It contains:
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:
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:
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.
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. |