Relentlessly Human Tour
198 episodes - English - Latest episode: almost 2 years ago - ★★★★★ - 3 ratingsBecky Brett is an executive coach for creative entrepreneurs. In her new show, Relentlessly Human Tour, Becky interviews artists around the country to rebuild the connections that have been lost and damaged because of the pandemic or how Life has scattered everyone. Her one rule for this show is that all interviews are done in person.
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Episodes
097 Summer Reruns Suffocating Negativity
June 25, 2019 04:00 - 13 minutes - 12.3 MBThis week's summer rerun is a look at suffocating negativity. For me and my board, especially this time of year, it is easy to get caught up in the stress of the moment and go really negative. This week's episode will help all of us avoid that trap!
096 Summer Reuns Personality Profiling
June 17, 2019 23:59 - 34 minutes - 31.5 MBThis week's summer rerun is a look back at personality profiling. This is by far the most downloaded episode of my 95-episode streak, so clearly people resonate with the information. When you're done listening to this, pick up a copy of Gretchen Rubin's "The Four Tendencies." It is the perfect accompaniment to this week's information. While personality styles are about how you receive information, the "Four Tendencies" are about how you respond to expectations. This knowledge is essential if ...
095 If Only I'd Known
June 10, 2019 01:45 - 30 minutes - 28 MBIf you are a Patreon supporter, you already know that I lost my voice this past week. As you can tell, it's really bad, so I'm turning to my backup host for the intro and outro. This week's topic covers many of the things you need to be aware of in the interview process. It's a mashup of summer rerun and new content, and I think this can really help you if you're job-hunting or if you're in the process of adding people to your team. Even potential board members can benefit from these question...
094 Summer Reruns Tools
June 04, 2019 01:02 - 31 minutes - 28.6 MBThis week is our first week of "summer reruns" so I wanted to start with my most popular episode: Tools. I've taken the original "Tools" episode and a "Tools 2" episode and edited them together. I hope this brings you value!
093 Summer Is Coming
May 27, 2019 18:40 - 8 minutes - 7.33 MBIf you live in the US, today signals the unofficial start of summer. Kids are getting out of school, pools are opening up, and many businesses go on a summer schedule, whether it's flexible hours for corporate employees or longer hours if you live in a tourism-based area like me with a lot of restaurants and retail. For me the summer means Festival time. It is my busiest time of year. This summer I'm taking my own advice about delegating and time management and changing things up for the podc...
092 Plan Time In Your Schedule For The Unexpected
May 21, 2019 00:48 - 8 minutes - 7.7 MBLast week I got "glutened" which meant I was out sick for a couple of days, missing board meetings and critical proofing time before our major publication goes to print. Fortunately, I had planned a looser schedule and was able to absorb this unexpected and quite sudden sick time without too much stress. Listen to how and why I was able to do that. Resources and links mentioned this week: Support the podcast with a Patreon gift: https://www.patreon.com/virtualexecutivedirector Email me to tal...
091 How To Handle A Stress Spiral
May 14, 2019 00:35 - 19 minutes - 18 MBThe day will come (or maybe it has already) when you and your team are going to be up against a massive deadline. As you inch closer to that deadline, you may start to feel the effects of what I call the Stress Spiral. This happened to me and my team recently. A Stress Spiral looks like this: looming deadline, pieces coming together, then something slips out of place, then something happens in your personal life to knock you off balance (because big deadlines seem to have their own special ki...
090 Puppets, Baby Alpacas, and Dealing With The Unexpected
May 06, 2019 23:00 - 21 minutes - 19.9 MBWhen you write a grant for an arts in education residency, you don't think you'll end up with your face thisclose to the backside of an alpaca in active labor. But that's how life goes sometimes. Listen this week as I talk about how nothing went right for this arts program, but everything still went perfectly.
089 Its OK To Be Happy
May 01, 2019 01:19 - 11 minutes - 10.4 MBIn nonprofit culture there is this insidious expectation that the way you show you care is by feeling as unhappy as the person who is bringing their problem to you. I'm here to debunk that right now.
088 Arts And Economic Development
April 23, 2019 00:44 - 29 minutes - 26.8 MBOn this week's episode, I'm sharing the audio from a radio appearance on WEHC, Emory & Henry College's station, where I got to talk with my pal, Dirk Moore, about the arts, economic development, tourism, and a bunch of other nonprofitly nerdy topics. The calculator that I mention in this episode can be found at http://bit.ly/artscalc. If you run a nonprofit arts org, I hope this episode helps you make your case to whoever needs to hear it. The arts are an important industry for many reasons, ...
087 Third Annual Tips From A Grant Panelist
April 15, 2019 23:00 - 27 minutes - 25.1 MBThis week's podcast is my third annual "Tips from a Grant Panelist" episode. In this episode, I'll share the four top tips I garnered from reading this year's crop of applicants to the VCA general operating support and project grants, and I'll share the tips that my fellow panelists wanted to you to know about. My top four are: 1. Take our advice and apply it to your next application 2. Find a proofreader 3. Take the time to write a quality application 4. Be honest about your struggles as an ...
086 Standing Up For Yourself
April 09, 2019 01:24 - 16 minutes - 15 MBThis past week, I got to speak again at a town council meeting. I was not happy about doing it, but I did it anyway. Sometimes we in nonprofit have to stick our necks out so that the person who comes next has it a little easier. I went before the council, and even though I was shaking and clinging to the podium to stay upright, I said what I needed to say. I hope this gives you the strength and some words you can use the next time you need to stand up for yourself and your organization. <3 As...
085 Taking A Micro Break
April 02, 2019 01:49 - 17 minutes - 15.6 MBI don't "observe" spring break, but my husband and I both happened to have business in Atlanta this past week, and we took the opportunity to step away from our usual routine for a few days. The time away made me realize that we don't need to take lavish sabbaticals to refresh and refocus. Even 30 seconds at your desk can have benefits. Listen to find out more.
084 My Talk at the YWCA Emerge Conference 2019: Building Unity Around Change
March 25, 2019 23:00 - 55 minutes - 50.4 MBThis week on the podcast is the full audio from my talk at the YWCA's Emerge conference a couple of weeks ago. The topic was "How to Build Unity Around Big Changes," which I've covered on the podcast before. What's different about the talk live vs. on the podcast is that when it's done live, I get to reinforce what I'm talking about with some audience participation. I hope that this helps you if you need to build unity in your organization. Thank you to our Patreon supporters for keeping this...
083 Lessons From 20 Years Of Festival Producing
March 19, 2019 01:41 - 16 minutes - 15.3 MBRecently I celebrated my 20 year anniversary in festival producing. It's been an amazing ride so far, and I've learned some lessons the hard way. This week I'm sharing a few of those lessons with you, so you can learn from my mistakes. Briefly, those lessons are: 1. How long it actually takes to plan an event 2. How to keep your volunteers feeling valued 3. What to do when your temper rises 4. Two magical phrases to use when someone is criticizing you 5. How to plan for trouble I'd love to kn...
082 Highlights From The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A F*ck
March 11, 2019 23:52 - 20 minutes - 18.6 MBLISTENER WARNING: As you can probably tell from the title, there are a few swear words in this week's episode. That's because I'm talking about my 5 highlights from Mark Manson's book, "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*uck." This book isn't about becoming nihilistic. It's about choosing carefully where to place your care and attention. The 5 concepts I loved most about this book are: 1. "Not giving a fuck does not mean being indifferent... 2. "Often the only difference between a problem being...
Sarah Olivieri Unpacks Digital Fundraising
March 05, 2019 01:00 - 31 minutes - 29 MBThis week on the podcast I have the continuation of my interview with Sarah Olivieri. Sarah is a former executive director and current consultant for nonprofits through her company, PivotGround. In this part of the interview, Sarah unpacks digital fundraising. We talk about how to find the time to do it, how it works to scale one-on-one communication, the #1 reason why your donors leave, and a bunch of other juicy stuff to take your digital fundraising to the next level (or really any level i...
080 PivotGround's Sarah Olivieri On Strategic Planning
February 26, 2019 03:32 - 32 minutes - 29.5 MBThis week on the podcast I got to interview Sarah Olivieri of PivotGround. We nerded out over strategic planning, how to talk to your board about the need for a plan, and how to make a plan that doesn't sit in a drawer for the next 3-5 years. You can connect with her on her website: https://pivotground.com/ If you enjoy this podcast and I bring you any value, I hope you'll become a Patreon supporter at https://www.patreon.com/virtualexecutivedirector. You'll have access to special content and...
079 Chef Travis Milton Part 2 How to Work with Chefs on Events
February 18, 2019 20:34 - 48 minutes - 44.1 MBContinuing last week's chat with chef Travis Milton, we talk about how to plan an event with food as the focus, you get to listen to us talk through the logistics of an event we have coming up soon, and in between we talk about "disappointed dad" discipline, what chefs really eat, and the history of candy roaster squash. If this podcast brings you any value, please join Marjorie Moore and become a Patreon supporter! You'll get to hear outtakes from this interview and gain access to my series ...
078 Chef Travis Milton On Foodways, Economic Diversity, And Heritage
February 12, 2019 02:00 - 45 minutes - 41.5 MBThis week on the podcast I talk with Travis Milton, chef and founding member of the Appalachian Food Summit. We nerd out on economic development through foodways, sustainability/accessibility, and Appalachian food heritage. We went on for so long, that this will be a two-parter. Next week will be a more tactical episode about how to plan a gala event for foodies. If you like what I'm doing for nonprofits, please consider becoming a Patreon supporter. Visit Patreon.com/virtualexecutivedirector...
077 Thoughts on Diversity Equity and Inclusion
February 04, 2019 16:50 - 23 minutes - 21.6 MBI'm developing thoughts around the ideas of diversity, equity, and inclusion. It will be increasingly important, not just for the health of our organizations, but also for grants and other funding sources that are going to require us to have policies around this subject, that we are working towards these ideals. At the recent VCA Artworks conference, I heard Crystal Williams from Boston University talk about diversity and inclusion, and it helped me begin to create a framework for discussion ...
076 How To Identify And Prepare For Big Changes
January 29, 2019 00:27 - 21 minutes - 19.7 MBThis past week I was sick as hell, so this week's podcast is a throwback to episodes 20 and 21 about how to identify and prepare for big changes. These are great lead-ins for the talk I'm giving at the Virginia Commission for the Arts conference on Wednesday, anyway, so if you think your organization might be on the verge of a major shift, this should help pave the way. Support the show by: Shopping at Lovoso.com and using promo code SHINE for 10% off your order Becoming a Patreon donor at Pa...
075 Getting Nonprofitty With OptiCoat's Dann Williams
January 22, 2019 00:00 - 1 hour - 56.3 MBThis week I got to talk with Dann Williams of Optimum Polymer Technologies. We did a crossover episode to talk about nonprofit and small business--how the two can work together through cause-related marketing, how to work effectively with different personality types, and I even reveal my secret to pre-Festival self-preservation. Support the show by: Shopping at Lovoso.com and using promo code SHINE for 10% off your order Becoming a Patreon donor at Patreon.com/virtualexecutivedirector Coming ...
074 Lena Elizer on Branding for Nonprofits and Small Businesses
January 15, 2019 02:04 - 38 minutes - 35.5 MBThis week on the podcast I got to interview Lena Elizer. Lena is a graphic and website designer who works primarily with women small business owners. She is the lead designer for the Virginia Highlands Festival and the designer of the Virtual Executive Director firefly logo. In this episode we talk about one of the most important questions you can ask yourself in the branding process, the biggest mistake people make when they begin the branding process, and the best advice ever about starting...
073 Answer These Questions Before Starting Your Nonprofit
January 08, 2019 03:37 - 18 minutes - 17.2 MBThis week I'm talking about the four questions you need to answer before starting your nonprofit, and the one bonus question that will make gaining traction so much easier. Helpful links: Visit our sponsor! Lovoso.com promo code SHINE for 10% off Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/virtualexecutivedirector Nonprofit Launch online form: http://bit.ly/Nonprofit_Launch Zero Mile Fun Run Kit: https://gum.co/zeromile Virtual Executive Director Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/VirtualExecDirector/
072 One
December 31, 2018 15:26 - 16 minutes - 15.3 MBThank you to our listeners who made 2018 memorable for all the right reasons! This week on the podcast, I'm sharing how I set my focus for the year by figuring out the ONE thing I can do that makes everything else easier or unnecessary. I hope this helps you, too! Some resources this week: The ONE Thing - https://www.the1thing.com/ Support the podcast through Patreon: patreon.com/virtualexecutivedirector Visit our Sponsor: lovoso.com and use promo code SHINE at checkout for 10% off
071 Interview with John Berry
December 24, 2018 16:04 - 49 minutes - 45.4 MBThis episode comes out on Christmas Eve, so it's a good time to take a break from fundraising, marketing, and productivity to enjoy a low-key interview I did with country music star John Berry. John is well-known for his Christmas show, he has a new EP out called "Thomas Road," and a hit single called "Beautifully Broken" from the film by the same name. If you'd like to purchase his EP, visit https://johnberrystore.bigcartel.com/product/thomas-road-ep-2018 Resource links mentioned in this epi...
070 Tips To Finish The Year Strong
December 17, 2018 22:53 - 16 minutes - 15.4 MBIt's time to bring it all home. We are coming up on the busiest fundraising time of the year--the last 3 days of the calendar year--and I am here to help you bring your fundraising campaign to a successful close. I'll talk about what to do for the next 3 weeks to bring it on home without stressing out your staff. Big thanks to our sponsors and patrons! Visit our sponsor! Lovoso.com promo code SHINE for 10% off Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/virtualexecutivedirector Nonprofit Launch online f...
069 How To Give Facebook What It Wants
December 11, 2018 03:30 - 58 minutes - 53.9 MBThis week's episode was recorded live at a lunch and learn where I taught local small business owners how to give Facebook what it wants to help generate attention for their businesses. Since nonprofits are also businesses, this is a great episode to help you elevate your Facebook strategy. I'll include a link to the video in the show notes, and it's also available on the Virtual Executive Director Facebook page. Resources: Visit our sponsor! Lovoso.com promo code SHINE for 10% off Patreon: h...
068 GivingTuesday Recap
December 04, 2018 02:03 - 21 minutes - 19.6 MBWhether you love or hate #GivingTuesday, it's an opportunity to draw positive attention to your organization. I've talked about how to have a successful #GT, and this week I share my results for the organization that I run. Spoiler alert: we beat our fundraising goal and massively increased our Facebook presence. I hope this case study helps you and your organization with future fundraising efforts. And as promised, below are the resource links I mention at the beginning of the episode. Resou...
067 Cause Marketing
November 27, 2018 01:00 - 11 minutes - 10.3 MBWhat is cause marketing and how can you get it to work for you? Cause Marketing is the marketing of a for-profit product or business which benefits a nonprofit charity or supports a social cause in some way. Customers want to spend their money where it can do the most good. That's why so many for-profit businesses align themselves with nonprofit organizations. Here are 3 tips to establish a profitable and balanced cause marketing plan for your organization. 1. Make sure you have brand alignme...
066 The Thank-You Note
November 20, 2018 01:13 - 21 minutes - 19.8 MBThis time of year we're writing a lot of thank you notes--for donations, gifts, experiences, volunteer time...What if you knew your thank you note would end up preserved forever in a museum? What would you say in it? This week I'm sharing what led to one of my thank you notes ending up in a museum exhibit, my admiration for Peter Sellars, and my theory of festivals. If you like what I'm putting out here, please consider becoming a patron on https://www.patreon.com/virtualexecutivedirector.
065 How to Rock Giving Tuesday and Self-Care Part 3
November 12, 2018 02:58 - 41 minutes - 37.8 MBAre you participating in #Givingtuesday? This week I'm going to talk about why you should care and how to make it work for your organization. This is also the third part of our three-part series with Paul and Shelley Gadola on how to self-care once your busy season is over. #GivingTuesday is a worldwide day of giving (this year taking place Nov. 27), fueled by the power of social media. It is celebrated the Tuesday after Thanksgiving in the US, and after the widely recognized shopping events ...
064 Cultural Transformation And Self-Care
November 06, 2018 00:43 - 36 minutes - 33.7 MBIn this week's episode, I'll walk you through the seven things that my board and I did to change our organization's culture and we'll hear part 2 in the 3-part series on self-care during your busy season. Please visit virtualexecutivedirector.com for full show notes and links to resources.
063 Tools 2 And Pre-Season Self-Care
October 30, 2018 03:09 - 39 minutes - 36 MBThis week I'm re-visiting the tools I use to stay productive as a nonprofit leader: Network for Good, Trello, and the Pomodoro Technique. I'm also starting a 3-episode series on self-care with the owners of Iron Mountain CrossFit, Paul and Shelley Gadola. Get more detailed show notes on virtualexecutivedirector.com.
062 Board Orientation 2
October 23, 2018 02:01 - 30 minutes - 27.6 MBJust had Board Orientation for my org this past weekend, and thought we were due for an update here on the podcast. If you'd like to download my Board Orientation Checklist, just visit virtualexecutivedirector.com/62 and sign up to get it.
061 Where To Spend Your Money
October 15, 2018 23:45 - 12 minutes - 11.5 MBNonprofits are notorious penny-pinchers. We are expected to solve the world's problems--problems, which, by the way, the most powerful governments on the planet can't seem to fix, but we're expected to do so with some string and a paperclip. But saving money isn't always about what you don't spend. It's also about spending in the right places, where you'll get the most impact for your investment. Some things are worth their price. Skimping on these things is a false economy, because you will ...
060 Five Questions To Ask Your Donors This Week
October 09, 2018 02:04 - 13 minutes - 12.3 MBWhen it comes to fundraising, I teach two key principles for success: match your organization's brand with your prospects' and do not try to sell the unsellable. When you do these two things you save yourself a lot of time and frustration, and your prospect list can more easily come into focus. However, this mainly applies to corporate sponsors, so what about individual donors? This week I'm talking about a 5-question strategy to ensure that you match your organization's values with your indi...
059 Why Your Year End Fundraising Could Flop
October 01, 2018 22:00 - 14 minutes - 13.6 MBIf 30% of your organization's fundraising comes in at the end of the year, shouldn't you start giving year-end fundraising 100% of your effort? This week I don't mean to scare anyone. My goal is to share with you four of the ways my own year-end fundraising has flopped, so that you can learn from my mistakes. Those mistakes were: poor planning, starting late, horrible time management, and a lack of commitment to the process. There's even a little history lesson and a big productivity tip in h...
058 Parenting A Dreamer
September 24, 2018 22:14 - 38 minutes - 35.4 MBWarning to everyone who might be listening with littles or in the open air: There is some adult language and few f-bombs this week. You are warned. This week on the podcast is a rare treat: I interview my mom! What I thought would be a discussion about how to parent a dreamer--someone who eventually ends up working at a nonprofit--turned into a little family history, what it looks like to support your kid who is in the arts, and I reveal a secret about my college life. (It's not that exciting...
057 Be Seen
September 18, 2018 02:19 - 4 minutes - 4.29 MBThis week's podcast is a quickie because I bit off more than I could chew this week. I began not one, but three challenges to kick myself into high gear: the Fundraising Intensive, a fitness challenge at my gym, and the "Be Seen" challenge with Jenn Scalia. In this episode, I share a quick outline for opening communication with potential funders and partners. If you want to join a future "Be Seen" challenge with Jenn, here's a link to her website: https://jennscalia.com/
056 Put The FUN Back In Fundraising
September 11, 2018 01:01 - 13 minutes - 12.2 MBUsing Shawn Achor's "The Happiness Advantage" as a jumping-off point, this week I talk about how and why you might want to put the FUN back in your fundraising efforts. This week's links are: Accountabilibuddies episode: http://virtualexecutivedirector.com/index.php/2018/05/21/podcast-episode-40-accountabilibuddies/ Training Magazine article: https://trainingmag.com/trgmag-article/happily-orange-after/ The "don't sell the unsellable" episode: http://virtualexecutivedirector.com/index.php/2018...
055 Gearing Up For Year - End Fundraising
September 03, 2018 19:52 - 12 minutes - 11.9 MBSomething that will be on your radar soon if it isn't already is year-end fundraising. This week I'm sharing more tips on how to get yourself ready for the big year-end push, why it's important to your organization, and a quick event fundraising tip to add a few extra dollars to your bottom line. Links below. Infographic on year-end fundraising: https://blog.winspireme.com/must-share-stats-on-year-end-giving-infographic Ep. 8 Fundraising Prep: http://virtualexecutivedirector.com/index.php/201...
054 Why Fundraising Might Feel Hard Right Now
August 29, 2018 04:34 - 16 minutes - 37.1 MBSomething that I noticed this year is that fundraising has been HARD. Like a LOT harder than usual. This week I'm talking about why that might be the case, how to put the fun back in fundraising, and I answer a listener question about last week's episode on rallying around a colleague in crisis. Here's why your fundraising may feel harder than usual: 1. Your list is old and outdated 2. You're trying to sell the unsellable 3. You're approaching fundraising from a place of desperation Here's ho...
053 How to Rally Around a Colleague in Crisis
August 21, 2018 02:49 - 24 minutes - 55.7 MBWe've seen it before: a sudden divorce, a death in the family, a catastrophic illness, or maybe it's even a national tragedy... Something horrible is requiring your colleague's attention and they are ... not handling it well. Here is how you love on them and support them through this. 1. Plan for them to miss deadlines. 2. Lighten their work load for however long they need and your team can handle it. 3. Ask them what they need and then give it to them to the extent you can. 4. If it is true,...
052 How to Recover After a Big Event
August 14, 2018 13:12 - 12 minutes - 29 MBI've heard it said (though I can't cite a source) that it takes a full day of rest for every hour of event time to fully recover. Now, I know none of us has that kind of time off available, but this week I'm going to talk about ways to speed your recovery after a big event.
051 War Stories, or as I (apparently) like to say, "Hunh"
August 07, 2018 03:03 - 22 minutes - 52.2 MBTrue tales from the 70th annual Virginia Highlands Festival, including a legit funny new nickname for one of my board members. I talk about the fires that needed putting out, the joyful moments, and what it means to redefine success as "significance."
050 Event Debrief Festival Patrons Concert and Reception
July 30, 2018 22:55 - 10 minutes - 24.6 MBEvery now and then I'm going to share an event debrief so we can learn from each other's mistakes and successes. If you have an event debrief you'd like me to include in an upcoming episode, email me becky at Virtual executive director dot com. This debrief is on the Virginia Highlands Festival's Patrons' Event. I'll talk about what the event is, what the goals were, and where we succeeded and failed in meeting those goals.
049 How to Deploy Self Awarness
July 23, 2018 22:13 - 12 minutes - 29.7 MBIt's one thing to be self-aware. It's another thing to put that self-awareness into practice. This week on the podcast I share a super embarrassing moment from last week and how I'm deploying self-awareness to make sure it doesn't happen again.
048 Herding Cats and Moving Food
July 17, 2018 02:41 - 10 minutes - 24.3 MBOK show of virtual hands. How many of you when someone asks you what you do, say something like, "I work in nonprofit. It's like herding cats." In this episode, I talk about a better approach than "herding" people towards a goal. This show has a special 5 minutes of meditative silence at the end. (This is why I need an editor!)