In this fourth installment of her mini‑series for solo entrepreneurs, Donna Brown urges business owners to turn their enterprises into agents of change by weaving philanthropy and personal values into their brand and daily operations. She critiques the superficial use of social media platforms, urging creators to go beyond beautiful content and actively inspire clients to take charitable action. Brown revisits the concept of tithing—donating a fixed percentage of earnings—as a metric of success, and shares a concrete model for Facebook groups: members contribute a small, recurring amount (e.g., $1 per month) that is pooled and rotated among different charities. She emphasizes that causes should be embedded in business plans, presented transparently, and broadened to encompass a wide range of social issues. Citing the Dalai Lama on compassionate selfishness, she closes with a motivational call to “be the change.”
Chapters
Hi guys, it's Donna Brown again, and this is the 4th in my little series, a mini-series about becoming an agent of change. And this is meant for all solo entrepreneurs, but of course it's suitable to anybody. But I really wanted to leverage the social media space in ways that maybe we haven't always done. People have beautiful, beautiful Pinterest boards. I still get— I still don't know how to use it, so I don't. Amazing Instagram with tons of followers. Yes, those are beautiful. There are some people who have amazing websites. Yes, those are wonderful and beautiful, and you do amazing work, and you have amazing content, and you deserve everything everybody pays for your services in the same way that they deserve the best from you. But there's more to it than that. There is more to it than that. So what are you doing to actively encourage your clients, your— the people who are in your groups to take action? And so in the other videos we've spoken about the fact that it is our duty, our right, and our privilege to become agents of change. About how our business is an extension of our Our values, and we should bring all of us to the table. The days are over when you have just this one little facade and people are supposed to just know one little thing about you. Yes, they don't see— they don't need to see me working out. And I mean, do you know what I mean? Like, okay, you don't have to share everything. There is so much thing— there's too much information. But they should share all the important parts about you. So the important parts about you are also the causes that you care about. Bring them to your business, bring them to your world, allow people to fall in love with that. And to identify with that, and to be encouraged to take action because you take action. Then I also spoke about tithing and encouraging your clients to tithe, and to tithe themselves. The tithe is what the church used to do, so the church could do everything wrong. That they just— okay, we won't go into that. But the tithe was basically 10%, and I did mention that somebody else is measuring their progress and their success of their campaigns, their sales campaigns and their launches by how much they were able to donate rather than how much they earned. So just consider how different that is and how motivating that is. And just think of how much people are inspired and magnetized by somebody who is doing it openly Who is? I know there was a there's a lot to be said about charity. You know, you don't say anything about it. You don't tell people what you're doing, whatever. But there's also a need for inspiration and motivation. So don't be afraid to tell people this is what I'm doing. Does anybody want to join in? Another idea I've had for for people and who have Facebook groups of a certain size or any size really is once this becomes Part of your business plan. Like, your causes can be part of your business plan. Don't forget that. Include them wherever possible and just say, you know, and people will love that about you. They may not give money to the same thing on their own, but they will love that about you, and they will love that part of their money is going towards that, and they won't mind. More so, they'll be inspired. So what would happen if somebody in a Facebook group of 5,000 people gave a dollar each? That's a lot of money. $1. Each month, $1. So that's $12 in a year. But every time we give that, we collect $5,000. And every month, a different charity, a different organization gets that $5,000. Think of what that would mean. Think of how much can be done with things like that. Don't think about yourself, and don't always think just even about your favorite cause. I hate to say that, but open your mind and your heart to feeling how can we all help everybody's cause. cause, because we are everybody's cause. Domestic violence, abuse, war, poverty, terrorism, racism, health, it's all us. Let's look after each other. That's what we're here to do. The Dalai Lama says that if the purpose of life is to If you want to be happy, if you want to— so if you want to be compassionate, make other people happy. If you want to be compassionate, you know, to make yourself happy, sorry, make other people happy. And he said it's the most selfish, the best kind of selfish activity that you can do. Do that. Be that. Be the change. My call to action. I'm giving tips, but my call to action in each of these videos is to be the change. Love you.
