Episode 169: Building Your Profitable Non-Profit with Kelsey Dee Bradley

So here's the deal. Yo. Yeah, I'm in Australia. I'm still feeling it now. Like, be right. You jet lagged at all? The time difference is so extraordinary. Like 17 hours that I don't necessarily feel jet lagged, but there's moments during the day that all of a sudden I hit a wall.

Yeah.

And of course I'm feeling that right now as we're starting.

You feel like you're like a day. You have like a day miss, like your day, you know?

Yeah. Oh, that's the most bizarre thing. So here's the funniest thing. I'm in Australia and. And I'm like emailing you guys and stuff. And it's because of the time difference, you don't email back. But it doesn't feel like that because it's the middle of the day, right? I'm like, oh, my God, they're not responding. And all day I'm like writing. No one's writing back. Like, not a single email comes in. Not even junk mail. I'm like, has the world abandoned me? Then I go to sleep crying myself to sleep. I wake up in the morning, there's like 70,000 emails. And then when I respond to you guys, you don't. You don't hear from me for a full day. So it was a total mind mess.

Yeah, it's hard. It was hard for me because I was anxious because I wasn't getting response. I didn't know if everything was okay. And I knew it was like the middle of the night when things would be going wrong and I couldn't react to them in the middle of the.

Night, you know, And I thought you had quit. I'm like, I'm like, she quit. And I'm like, oh, no, she's back. She's back. And then she quit again. I'm like, oh, my God.

That's exactly what happened.

Well, when we're ready to kick things off, I got some fun stuff for you about Australia. So you kick us off.

Oh, are we ready?

Okay, I'm ready. You are listening to the Profit first podcast.

Episode 160.

69.

Oh, yeah.

Here we go.

Welcome, everyone, to the Profit first podcast.

I'm your co host, Christina Bolda, and I'm like McCallowitz. You know, I'm the author guy of Profit First. For God's sake. What was so funny?

What's so funny?

It was so like the dude.

Like, I'm the author guy forever. I just want to know. I'm like the author guy. No, I didn't mean to say arrogantly, I'm just. I hope you have your copy of it. I mean, for gosh sake, pick it up. I'm joined in the studio by the laugher person over there, Kelsey Ayers.

Hey, everybody.

And you, my friends, you're listening to the Profit first podcast. It's a show where we explore every element of profitability. Even a non profit needs to be profitable. You know that. Oh, yeah, yeah, that's it.

That's it. You can find us on itunes, tunein radio, Google Play, stitcher, and of course, Profit first podcast. Mike, do you have an icebreaker for us today?

I do, I do. Is there anything else I wanted to say first? Community shout out. Do we. When do we thank our sponsors? Oh, not yet. First we do our icebreaker. Okay, I'm a little bit off.

We're getting back in the swing.

Yeah, yeah.

It's not Australia time.

Yeah, I'm a little bit quagmired. Oh, yeah, I haven't used that one in a while. So I'm in Australia and I don't know if you all can see from there.

I cannot.

Okay, so these I'm scrolling through, there's a list of stuff. So here's what's funny. You travel through Australia and you meet people and they start using Australia isms, I guess it's called. And so some of the words, I'm like, what was that? They start teaching me them with the very soft words, like, oh, this is what it means to take a U turn, for example, or whatever. Like, you know.

Right.

But here, how we say it in Australia. Then within a day or two, it becomes the most vulgar terms you've ever heard. And it's true, I think anywhere I visited, that seems to be the nature. They start off like these soft, easy words like, oh, you should know how to say this and that. And within minutes, worst case days, people are teaching you the most salacious, inappropriate words ever. So I want to start off with some soft words, and maybe we'll move on to some inappropriate stuff too.

Okay.

Okay, so here's the quiz. I got three of them for each of you. Okay, first one's to Christina.

Oh, boy.

What's a Chuck?

A Chuck.

That's an Australian phrase or term.

Am I allowed to ask a sub question?

No, no. I want to know your best guess.

A Chuck. I don't know, like a.

You're all soft.

Look at that Chuck over there. Like that guy.

That guy.

Like that schlub. Like that Chuck.

Yeah, like. Oh, yeah, schlub, Schlub. Okay, so do you actually. Do you want to guess? We'll just do three total because. Do you have a. Hers is. It's a schlub. Like, who is that? Chuck? Our Australian friends right now are laughing.

Asses off a truck.

A truck? Yeah. No, a chook is a chicken. Oh, so there's chook farms. Yeah, Chook farmer.

Okay.

Okay, so we'll start off with an easier one. I'll start with you this time. So both of you gotta go.

Give her the easy one.

What's a tradie? A tradie, like Australian word, tradie.

Somebody who sells in the market.

Okay. Someone who sells in the market.

Yeah, a tradie.

A vendor.

I was just gonna say that. A vendor. Actually a vendor.

Very close. It's a tradesman. So this is someone that is a construction worker or something.

Okay.

All right, we'll amp it up a little bit. What's a pokey?

Pokey?

Pokey. Like a hokey pokey, but just the pokey.

A pokey?

Yeah.

Policeman.

Oh, good guess.

No, I was gonna say someone that gets on your nerves.

No, a pokey is a poker machine, like a one off camera.

How do we distinct between it's a person and it's an object?

If you're Australian, you'd know this st stuff, it's so funny. So people are like, oh, you know, let's go to the pokey and eat some choke. Choke. Probably said something horrible there. A choke is like. Probably like, I don't know, an eyeball or something. But yeah, people, they talk like, interesting. Yeah, I got tons more words. So we'll go over it. Words like, what's a Bonnie? A bottle o. A servo. We got a lot of stuff to cover. And then we'll get to the horrific stuff later.

Oh, man.

The non children part of our show. Yeah. Oh, there's some vulgar stuff coming. All right, what else you got for us? Did you tell people where they can listen in on to us, Christine?

I certainly did that. And we also have a shout out. Can you play our shout out this week from Rami?

Yeah. So we have people calling our shout out hotline. Here's what Rami had to say.

Hi, Mike. That's Ronnie Alley Jill, the CEO of Poplar Financial. We started with profit first back in November where we had about 10% profitability. We are now. We have now broken 29.5%. Our goal was 30, so we've rounded up. Thank you so much for your ideas. We. It's been wonderful to implement and has Made a huge difference in our business. I am permanently profitable.

Yeah, baby. See that's.

You got new one.

Yeah, I brought that back from Australia. I went to a footy game. Do you know what footy is? Football. Yes.

Yay.

But it's Australian football. Yeah. So you're learning now. They add the. The ie at the end of everything or a Y. So. Okay, Trady. Right. Footy.

What do they call it?

Yep. Y' all are learning.

What do they call it? Hoagie.

A hokey. A hoagie a hokey. That's a good point. What would they call something ends in an e? I don't know. I don't know. I think you confuse every Australian listening in right now.

Sorry.

Okay, so we have a shout out hotline, by the way.

Yes, you.

You. Profit first is changing the world's profitability. I mean, when I was touring Australia for the last two weeks, everyone down there that's doing profit first has amplified their business. And this is a worldwide phenomenon. I mean, you can improve your business too. And we want to hear what you've experienced. So call us at 844-876-7221. That was 844-876-7231. Dial that number. Tell us about how you've amplified your profitability. Get some exposure for yourself. But we want to hear because your testimony inspires others. And together we can eradicate entrepreneurial poverty. All right, Nice. All right, before we kick things off, I do want to thank our corporate partners who make the show a reality. You know, I love hearing. I want to thank Fundbox, nextiva, Receipt, bank, and that's kind of hard cut there. Receipt, bank and Right Networks for supporting the show. And I wanted to give a special shout out to Right Networks for supporting us. I'll give all the details on the other sponsors at the end of the show. But if you don't know what Right Networks is, for God's sake. For God's sake. People call them Right Networks helps you securely transition your accounting based desktop applications into the cloud, regardless of which version you're using. So as a partner, you can trust that Right Networks will take away the burden of it so you have more time to focus on your business. This means you can keep close track of your finances, operations, all that stuff on the cloud, even if you had the old desktop stuff, because Right Networks makes the old new. You can work from anywhere, anytime, and the Right Network support team is there to help you around the clock. How do you get signed up with Right Networks? It's really Easy. Call them at 1-888-not-1800-188846-95905. That's right, just call 888-469-5905. Now here's the beauty. You're listening to us probably on your smartphone right now. So I know there's a phone in your hand.

Oh, man.

Call them and come into the modern times, my friends.

Love that. Oh, wait, before we start, also I want to do, I want to do a quick shout out to Stacy Seguin. She is one of our members, one of our core members, and she is overcoming one of like one of her fears is public speaking.

Okay, so overcoming is like some kind of disease.

No, no, no, no, no. But I just want, want to acknowledge this because, you know, she in the past has struggled with speaking in front of people and recently she did a presentation to 11 creative startups and she found herself offering a profit first webinar and, you know, answering a bunch of questions and she ended up being really empowered. So huge shout out to Stacy. I'm so proud of you.

Yeah, that's fantastic.

Yeah, we have 180 members that are profit first professionals. Stacy's one of them. So if you, if you're looking for the help of making your business profitable, call one of our members. And Stacy would be a fantastic one. And she's stepping things up.

Oh, yeah.

Okay. We read our outline. I gave you the Australiaisms. We talked about our corporate partners believe.

We'Re ready for our guests.

Yep. Let's talk about our guest. Her name is Kelsey Bradley. She founded Design Cause nine months after graduating from college or university, which by the way, in Australia is uni. They only call it uni. So how is uni for you? I said like unicorn. Like what kind of uni?

Yes.

Yeah, well, the first time I heard it, they're like, oh, did you go to uni? I'm like, uni?

What is that a restaurant?

Unified. Yeah, the steak was delicious. At Unity, Kelsey Bradley is a founder. The founder and executive director of Design Cause. She structured the organization, managed all volunteers and campaigns, and single handedly raised over $35,000 that was needed to complete Design Cause inaugural project and did it all within under a year. Now here's the big three things you don't know about Kelsey Bradley. She found a non profit within nine months after graduating architectural school. She ran the organization, did all the fundraising, all that stuff, and moved to rural Cameroon to oversee the construction of the first project. And she raised that $30,000 plus, as I explained in two months alone. And she loves horses. 20. I think it was 20 plus years of riding horses, so pretty cool. All right, I think. I hope that's you, Kelsey. Or maybe I'm reading someone else's notes. Did I read the wrong one? Kelsey, welcome to the show. Hi.

Thank you so much.

Do you ride horses or am I. Read my notes mixed up?

No, no, no, that's definitely me. That's definitely me.

Okay. Yeah. Your whole life, right? You've ridden horses?

Yeah, yeah, I've ridden on some pretty big stages too. So it's. It's like basically my entire childhood was dominated by horses.

Oh, my God. My heart was racing. So. So tell us about this project. You do a project, the first country you decide to serve is Cameroon. And how do you pick? I guess a benefactor of your not for profit work?

Yeah, you know, I didn't really pick. It just sort of came. I mean, I very serendipitously found this project. You know, I was in the middle of architecture school at the time, and I was just frustrated with what we were learning. So I thought, okay, well, maybe I can find a project and just volunteer my design services and try to, you know, serve. Serve some people that need help. And I found this project in my town, actually. You know, my local church that I went to. One of the pastors founded this particular school. I had no idea. And at the time that I talked to him, they had no classrooms at all, but they had hundreds of students attending the school. So I thought, wow, they could, they could use my help. And it really just sort of grew from there. I did not go out selecting Cameroon. In fact, if I did that, I probably would have never chosen Cameroon because there's a lot of, you know, issues going on there and I had to get special permission to travel and different things like that. So wasn't my first choice. But I. I loved it either way.

Yeah, that's awesome.

What was the project specifically that you did in Cameroon?

So I did a. They have classroom blocks. So it was four classrooms in a block. And because there was about three and a half years or three years between the time where I sort of got interested and introduced to the project and actually sort of started the organization and fundraising and all that, they had gotten a grant to build some classrooms in that three year period that I was just doing research and design. And I found out because I went there that the government standard government classrooms that they were building were just wildly inappropriate. The research that I did was pretty rudimentary. I'm a college student. I went by myself. I didn't have any special tools or gadgets or anything, but I found out that during the hottest time of the year, it's 110 degrees outside and it can be 120 degrees inside the classrooms.

Oh my God.

Yeah. So the students, I mean, they're in full uniform, they can't learn, they can't even pay attention. They don't want to go to school anymore, so they just don't go. So, you know, I recognized this pretty early on as just inadequate. And it didn't take long to realize that the reason why these classrooms were becoming ovens was because of the construction and because of the materials they were using. So, so that sort of was my initial research that led to the new design and the new classrooms, which, you know, instead of being 10 degrees hotter, they're 10 degrees cooler.

Nice.

So cool. The school.

That's the phrase.

That's the phrase, the coolest cool. So, you know, the solution is so obvious from the outside. Students are literally in a human oven in there. Of course they're not going to be focused on classes and, and you provide a solution. But when they're living it, when you're inside a situation like that, is it obvious, was it obvious to them that the problem was construction?

Oh, no.

That they had a cooling?

No.

Why, why is that?

I've seen that.

How come people living in the situation can't see that as the problem, do you think?

Well, one of the things that I spent a lot of time sort of firsthand experiencing and learning about is the mindset is so different. It's, it's honestly hard to wrap your head around. Like, you know, here we sort of, here as in sort of in the Western world, we tend to have a very proactive view. Like if there's a problem, we're, we're jumping to solve it. You know, we want to be the first people to solve the problem, whereas there it's, it's a lot more passive. And I mean, I didn't spend enough time there to fully understand, but I recognized that that proactive spirit that I'm accustomed to just doesn't, it's not a very strong part of the culture there. So, you know, that piece was challenging for me and I think that they recognized what the problems were, but I think that finding the solution seemed so far away and daunting and they had smaller issues to deal with in their day to day lives that they just were like, well, it's not a priority.

Hey Fireball, you didn't, you Travel internationally through Africa too.

Yeah. I went to Ghana in West Africa.

Do you see the similar cultural challenges? If it's a challenge?

Yeah, for sure. I mean, I can't speak for. For outside of Ghana, but in Ghana, there was very much a kind of a between and betwixt culture where there was access to Western ideologies and thought processes to a degree, but they were also clinging to their past traditional knowledge. And so I think part of all of the infrastructure, there was signs of that and limited resources and I think in terms of governmental structure and how they move forward as a country. So it's. I would guess that it's a similar thing across Africa.

Sounds challenging. You bring in Western ideas. They're here today, Ghana tomorrow.

Oh, boy.

That was horrible. That was absolutely horrible. But what about that other. Kelsey loves it. She's not great. Kelsey. What about the. You're the outsider. Yes. You're the Westerner bringing in these ideas. Is there a resistance to it?

Yes and no. I treaded extremely carefully through that interaction. There was, when I say collaborative, like, I mean, really collaborative. You know, there was. I was the only person, Western person who went there throughout this entire process. And so I made it very clear that I was here to bring new ideas. And they were there to select the ones that they wanted to try was kind of the way.

So they retained control over the direction of the project.

Right, right. And you know, it very easily could have not gone that way. I just made a conscious decision and stubbornly stuck with it throughout the entire process, which a lot of people told me was not the right thing to do. And I got some flack for it, like, especially when I was in architecture school designing the building. So a lot of people disagree with that, but I think that ultimately that's what made it a success.

Yeah, I agree.

Okay, so now let's get to the profit aspect of it. So when we were talking off air, what I think I heard from you is even a nonprofit needs to effectively be profitable.

Oh, absolutely. I mean, if you don't have any money, you can't do anything.

That's true.

Right. So yeah. So you're saying that it's so obvious, but it doesn't seem so obvious. It seems like some of the non for profits I've worked for, they're like. They're trying to actually vacate themselves of money at all costs.

Yeah.

So why don't you kind of give them a little more detail? Why does a non profit need to be profitable, so to speak?

Yeah. So one thing I just have to throw in here. Nonprofit is the worst name ever because.

It implies that's the highlight of the century. Yeah. Why is it the worst name ever?

It's horrible. And it's so misleading to people. They think that they can run their entire organization with no money, and that just doesn't work. So I found out pretty early on because I went in with the same mindset that I'm sure 99.9% of people go into a nonprofit space with, which is, you know, I just need to find some people to support me, and I don't have to put any money into it. I could get donations, and then I'll just do my great work and rainbows and daisies, everything will be great. That couldn't be farther from the truth. You know, I put in a small amount of investment of my own money. Well, actually, it ended up being not that small from where I was in my life at the time. And then I realized I got a little bit of money in, and then there was just a flat line for months. And I was like, oh, my gosh, I need to figure this out. Like, what's. What's happening? Like, why can't I bring in any money? Like, how come I'm talking to people about my organization and they are just kind of like, oh, that's cool. And then walking away, like, you know, what's happening? And then I started to. Instead of reading specifically nonprofit stuff and looking specifically at nonprofit things, I started to look at business things. You know, how to market, how to sell, you know, how to network. And that's when things started to turn around and when I started to actually bring in money. And one of the most. The biggest things I did was change the way I thought about money. You know, instead of thinking like, oh, this is going to be impossible to raise this money, like, I don't know where I'm going to get it from. Like, I need to find that amazingly wealthy benefactor. I started thinking like, okay, well, you know, the project's gonna be built in January, so I'm gonna bring in all my money in the next two months. And that's basically what happened. But I think that changing how I thought about it and stop. I stopped being so negative about money, which was just exuding out of me when I was talking to other people. And I didn't realize. And as soon as I flipped that and started looking much more at my organization as a business and less of it as a quote unquote nonprofit, I mean, things turned around really fast.

What kind of practices did you do to flip that mindset? I mean, it's sort of easier said than done, right?

Yeah, Well, I actually started working with a business coach. I just, you know, I started this organization pretty much right out of college or university uni. And I just, you know, I didn't.

Know you were Australian.

No, no. I actually just had no idea what was going on, and I really needed some support. And so she was able to, you know, teach me these. These other ways of looking at things, which I, like, latched onto wholeheartedly because I just thought, like, I have to do something to change this, because, like, we were, like, cruising for death. Like, I didn't know what was going on with my organization, and I was scared I was going to have to give the money back that I had raised. So definitely working with somebody else and having my hand held for that really crucial period of time where I could turn things around was really vital.

You said you were looking, at least initially, for one big benefactor. Is that how it played out? Was it one big benefactor, or did you raise money through multiple people?

Definitely multiple people. I think that there's a misconception that you can just, like, find a very wealthy, generous person, and that just. Just rarely happens. You know, I. I went to everyone. I had my close friends donating $20, and then I had some fairly large benefactors donating five figures. So I think that it just. You never know what's going to happen, and you have to treat everyone like they're your biggest donor.

That's a good point.

And do you make it public? Because when I think of campaigns like Kickstarter and so forth, which I presume you, in your own way, maybe even emulated something like that, is, I believe there's a benefit to share that, hey, Joe contributed $20. Martha put in $15. Do you make that stuff public, or how do you get the momentum going? You said you had two months of quiet. How did you get the momentum going and keep it going?

Oh, I had five to six months of quiet. It was just flatline. Well, what I did is as soon as I started so the construction process, we had to purchase a particular machine and get it shipped to the site in order to do the construction method that I had designed. And we needed $3,000 to purchase that particular piece of equipment. And I scraped and scraped and scraped to get that amount of money together. And then as soon as we bought the machine, I made it extremely public that we had bought the machine. And then people were like, oh, oh, Kelsey's not full of crap. This is actually happening. And then people were much more willing to donate. I think that trust just wasn't there in the beginning. And, you know, why would it be like a newbie out of college? I have no. Clearly no idea what's going on. And I'm asking people to make donations to this dream that I have. They needed some proof. And I think that. That taking that initial step was enough proof. And, you know, it worked out really well, the timing, because that happened right before the holiday season, so. So, you know, then the ball really started rolling. I did have a Crowdrise site where I did post amounts, but I. Because they were all. Basically all in person, I would just write anonymous. Um, so I'm not.

Do you.

Yep.

Do you find that you're. You have to continuously prove that you're making progress? Like, now you have that initial trust. Do you find that you have to keep kind of proving that you're moving along for them to stick with it? Or at this point, do they have complete, like, blind trust in you?

I think the donors, it was a fairly small pool in terms of nonprofit pools. I mean, it was a number of people, but like, I think around 100 or something. Since they sort of started with me from the beginning, I'm pretty confident that I have their trust at this point. I think that if I wanted to reach out, which I do to new people, I would need to build that trust. Just like I had the initial group.

Right.

Yeah. It's just I don't have the big name, the. The huge organization.

Right, right.

You have to show proof somehow.

And I remember you saying that persistence is a major factor in raising money for a non profit. What role did persistence play for you?

Everything. Literally everything. I had people donate solely because they were impressed that I just flat out wouldn't give up.

They wanted you off their back. For God's sake, Kelsey, leave me alone. Here's 30 bucks.

I know. I mean, pretty much, you know, and I had people. I found out after the fact that, you know, people would talk about me behind my back and say, you know, I can't. She's like a dog with a bone. Like, she will not give up on this dream. And, you know, it reaches a point where people just feel like, okay, like, I just. I have to get on board because clearly this is going to happen.

Right.

But is there a certain point where it's clear you got to give up on that person, that you become a nuisance to them?

I think, I think, yeah. But I think that because I was able to do it within the year mark. I mean, I think if this is like three years down the road and I'm still trying to raise like five, five grand, you know, people are going to be like, okay, Kelsey, you need to reevaluate your life now.

Yeah, yeah.

But I think that because there was like that six, five or six month lull where nothing happened, but then a lot happened. You know, people knew that I was still working on things. I wasn't like banging on their door every day, but I would approach them in these little spikes and say, like, you know, I'm still working on it. We're making a little bit of progress. We're gonna get there. And they would, you know, first couple times they were like, nah, you know, my biggest donor I approached three or four times. And the first three times they just were like, okay, well that's nice, that's a good idea. And then that fourth time they said, okay, you know, it's holiday season, I'm feeling generous. I'll give you X amount. And then I approached them afterwards to say thank you. And they said, oh, did you need more money? And I said, well, yeah, what do you ask? A little more. And then they said, okay, well, however much you need, I'll cover it. Yeah, I mean, that was amazing.

That's interesting.

But I think that there's so many. Everything.

Yeah, there's so many behavioral aspects that play in. I've read an experience that when someone gives a small amount in the beginning, that now they feel linked to the project and they're much more willing to give a bigger amount. But you also talked about the importance of giving in order to receive. What did you mean by that?

Well, I think that a lot of it kind of plays into the mindset piece. Remember I talked about in the beginning, you know, being more open and, you know, positive towards money. And I think that plays into it. You know, when you give $20 or $100 or $1,000 to an organization, not only do you feel great, but you're sort of trusting that, you know, you're. You're going to be able to make that money back for yourself. And I had never thought about money that way ever. And I always sort of thought it was like the castle. You, like, have your moat up, you guard your money at all costs. But it, it just, it creates such a negative energy around it. And, you know, if you just are a little bit more relaxed and open towards it, it become. You stop thinking about it as sort of the be all, end all. And you Realize that, like, money comes and goes and you don't need to be like the greedy Scrooge or whatever and, you know, hoard everything. Giving money just opens you up to receive more and it's inspiring to others. And people like to give money to people who they see, giving it to those who need it.

Kind of like breathing, right? You breathe in, you breathe out, you breathe. I just took a deep breath. R Kelsey here in the studios. Yes.

It is like breathing the basis of light.

Yeah, yeah. So, Kelsey B. Once, that's short for Bradley, once you raise all this money now, you have to run a profitable project. You have to stay within the boundaries of this money.

Yes.

So bring us back to Cameroon. Was it effectively profitable? Were you able to do it within the budget you allotted?

Oh, yeah. I mean, my original plan for this entire project was to do two classrooms and we built four.

So.

Wow, that's awesome.

Yeah.

And I think hot diggity dog for the same. That's also Australian Diggity dog. It's diggity here in the US Diggly. So you got four classrooms done for the same amount of money you planned for two classrooms?

Yes.

Wow. And what happens now? Is the project done? You leave, you're never back, or is this the start of something that continues on?

Well, I think that people want to hear that it continues on, but that's actually not the goal of the organization. So I'm still in communication with them. You know, I actually just paid for one of the their brightest students to continue his studies. But the goal is secondary school. Yeah.

But then uni.

But then uni.

The goal is not to have a hand in what's going on there. The goal is to provide them with the skills and the information. Because I work directly with people there, so they know how to build it. And then to take a step back and say you have the skills, you have the knowledge, it's your choice as to whether you want to continue this or not. So they need more classrooms, but I left the machine there. It's now theirs. So they can choose whether to build the next future classrooms with this model or not. But it costs 50% of, like the original classrooms, government classrooms, to build these new classrooms.

Wow. So cheaper than the original. And 20 degrees cooler, right?

Yeah, yeah. 10 degrees.

Unbelievable.

So.

Well, I thought you said 20. I thought outside it's 110, inside it's 120, but now you have it down to 100.

Yes. So that's the difference between. I'm going by the exterior air Temperature and I think you're going a total.

So you're both right.

Yeah, we're both right. We don't have to fight it out over this one. Okay, so before we wrap things up, what's the future for you? Now that you figured out how to make a non profitable business profitable and successful, what are you doing next?

So in terms, I sort of have branched out into a number of things. Design cause is still in existence. We're actually just kicking off a new project in Malawi. So that's very exciting. And then I am. Yeah, yeah. Just like in the last week we've solidified it. So that's very exciting. And then on the other side of the sort of spectrum is I have, I've since coming back from Cameroon, I started a blog that's really focused on helping other people who are new or just starting out in the non profit space actually create profitable, you know, engaging, amazing nonprofits themselves. I think that there's a lot of misconceptions out there and a lot of poor information. So that's sort of my side side baby at the moment. But it's really exciting and I've had.

A lot of good feedback how to make your cause based business actually a profitable, sustainable business.

Yeah.

Well, Kelsey Bradley, it's been a joy having you on our show. Before we let you go, where can people learn more about what you're doing and connect with you?

Well, you can connect with me on my website. It's KelseyDBradley.com d has two silent E's. So D E E and then you can find me at that name on Instagram, Facebook. I'm around.

In Cameroon apparently every so often.

Yeah.

Or Malawi. Yeah, exactly. Kelsey, thanks so much for joining us today.

Thank you, Kelsey.

All right, guys, well, here's what we're going to do In a minute we're going to recap what we learned from Kelsey. You guys, I saw everyone taking notes.

Yeah.

So we're going to share the best of the best. We are going to also thank our corporate partners. But before that, we have something new and special.

We do.

You're quickly scrambling. What the hell is it, Mike? It's what I had some really snazzy term for it. What was it? Listeners Listener Mail.

Mail.

Was that it?

Was that it?

Was it?

Here's your listener mail. Do I have a sound effect for it? Here's our listener mail. Okay. Basically what we're doing is getting a lot of questions in about profit first. Instead of answering them directly, we thought we'd start answering Them on air. So what's that? What came in today?

Yeah. So this question comes from Josh.

Hey, Josh.

He goes, hey, Mike. Hey, Josh, I'm about to make my first owner's pay. Would you pay the employer tax liability out of the owner's pay account or the tax account? I know it's nothing big, but what have you seen Flows best?

Okay, Josh, great question. So a reminder for everyone's listening. When you set up profit first for your business, we call it the five foundational accounts. The income account, that's a depository, only that's where money flows in. But it's like a serving tray for Thanksgiving dinner. You would never eat off the serving tray. Well, maybe at Kelsey's house, everyone just dive in.

Maybe Kelsey specifically.

Yeah, Kelsey. She's like, what are you doing with that turkey? Like, shut up, I'm hungry. But you do with Thanksgiving, you carve the turkey. And so everyone gets a piece on their plate. The other plates are profit, owner's comp tax, and operating expenses. So for Josh's situation, the owner's compensation is used to pay his salary as an employee of his own business, and the tax account is used to pay his taxes. So pull the tax money from your tax account. Now, here's the one thing, Josh. If you have like an S corp or a business where you have to actually run payroll and your taxes are taken out of your payroll check, then the money that accumulates in your tax account will simply issue you a check at the end of each quarter to reimburse you for your taxes. But basically your taxes are always paid out of your tax account. Okay, how'd you like that? Was that good? Thank you. Yeah. Whoa. Yeah, the fans go crazy. Okay, that's our new little segment. Now let's get back to our regular fare.

Okay.

Do you really eat turkey off the turkey tray?

I mean, sometimes.

I mean, who doesn't pick everybody?

I'm a major picker. Yeah, there was a picker, a nose picker woman on the airplane. So disgusting. I. I almost. She was one chair over. I almost stood up and went over to her and just said, here's a tissue. Where was it on my return flight. It's freaking United Airlines. They allow that stuff.

Oh, my gosh.

Blame the airlines for sure.

They don't have enough flag.

I'm just saying, if they're gonna beat passengers, be the picker.

Under the plane with you.

It was so disgusting. And then I couldn't stop looking at her. It was disgusting. I mean, she was a knuckle deep. Oh, God. I know. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Okay, well, that was entertaining. On that note, let's talk about our corporate partners. Here's another thing that disgusts me. What? Our corporate partners. I thought it was you cannot stand. They do not disgust me. They're amazing. First one is Fundbox. David Tolkien was emailing me. He said, hey, Mike, I heard you come to California. Because I was flying through is up in San Francisco.

Yeah, yeah.

And he goes like, how long are you gonna be here? I said, two hours. He's like, damn it, if it's three hours, I pick you up at the airport. We go. He likes to work out like an animal. I want to go to the gym with you, work out, and then we'll come back. So next time, David Tolkien, Fun Box. Here's what house they work out for you. You have an invoice that's due. They will release the funds to you in its entirety on the spot.

Yeah.

That way we have tons of invoices due to us. I think I should give a call to Fundbox and get all that cash.

You should.

All right, next. Diva. Voice over IP V O I P. Voice over IP. Yeah, yeah.

Like 30 phones now.

I know. It's becoming ridiculous. Did you see during the huddle today, the phone rings here? Mike Scalise runs over to Ron's phone to see who it is, but over. Because Ron called in over zoom or whatever. You could see the phone ringing at his house simultaneously. You heard him ring and he puts it on pause. Yeah, you don't need that anymore. You don't need people running to the desk saying that. The phone, it has this simal ring function where anywhere in the world. I was in Australia, I have next to Eva, also on my cell phone. Phone rings here. It's ringing in Australia.

Oh, crazy powerful.

Yeah. And I'm like, leave me alone at 2 in the morning. I'm like, what do you want? Kelsey Receipt Bank. You know, all those receipts you get, you scan right in syncs with your accounting, your accounting system. It's beautiful. And of course, we talked about them questions. Have you signed up with Wright Networks? They take any of those desktop applications you have, they make them web enabled. Total flexibility. So whenever you travel around, even if you're working from home or from Australia, you can be working on your applications because of right networks. So check out our corporate partners. They are truly wonderful people, even though I like to make fun of them every so often. By the way, Yaniv from Nice even just texted Me. It's not Jamie who's coming. He's sending Max. Remember Max from last year? You remember Max from last year? He's right. With camera. Yeah, Max and Molly.

Oh, is that a show or something?

Mike and Molly, very close.

Yeah.

So, okay, so that's good to know.

Yeah, Heads up on that. Okay, so that was our corporate partners. Definitely check them out. What else we have to talk about? Oh yeah. What did we learn today?

What did you learn today?

What'd you learn today?

I'll start us out if that's what you mean. Yeah, let's see. People living in problem getting off and going. Oh, one thing that's interesting is that when people are living the problem, they can't necessarily see the root cause of it. So it was so obvious. How can students do well in 120 degree temperatures? But maybe it's not obvious when you're living the situation.

You know, it's hard to think outside of the box. And if you're in that 120 degree room with them, I can't imagine you're thinking clearly.

No. Two other quick things. Kelsey decided to work with a business coach. How often does a non profit decide to work with a business coach? Yeah. Extremely smart. And then the other thing was money comes around. Oh, just kind of how she said. The flow of money. That money comes and goes and that you shouldn't be a miser about it.

Yeah.

And just be clinging to it. I kind of like that. Oh, I got one other thing too, but I won't share because I'm gonna chew them all up. What do you get? What do you have?

I think my biggest takeaway is I just appreciate her desire to really maintain their culture and respect for their culture and really fostering their ability to use new information but apply it in a way that's meaningful to them and that works for for them. I think in terms of a global economy and the movement of money. Raising money here but using it there. And that's a really effective way to build that economy rather than here. We're going to do this our way now. We have this western model in your completely non western culture.

Winner, winner, chook dinner. That was good.

Yeah, you're totally right.

Good call, Good call. What'd you get?

I have two. First, persistence is key, which it's so easy to let people talk you out of your dreams. I've experienced that myself. You need to stay true to your mission and to stay persistent when you believe in it and also to change the way that you think about Money. Everybody is so negative about money. It's I need, I need, I need. And you're constantly grasping for it. But if you just flip around your mindset, it comes with ease. It's amazing how that works.

One other thing I wanted to add was when she bought that machine. Like this machine, by the way, sounds like this Machiavellian, amazing machine. Like it builds school. You just push a button. It builds schools with air conditioning built in. But wherever this machine was that she made it public once he owned it and she said that everyone started backing it. Do you ever notice when you drive by a firehouse that they have this sign out front of the money you're looking to raise the guy climbing the ladder? You know, they will always start it.

Thermometer thing.

A thermometer thing. They will always start it not at the bottom, but with momentum, right?

Yeah.

Because behaviorally, when people see that there's already momentum, they're more likely to back it than if it starts at the bottom.

Yeah, that makes so much sense.

Yeah. So that was pretty cool. She did that. Okay, we want to know from you, listener, what did you learn today? Put it in the show notes or whatever, but we want to know what you learned too. Okay?

Yeah.

Okay.

Just like that.

All right.

One more thing.

Yeah.

Profitfirstprofessionals.com.

Well, be sure to raise and review us on itunes, stitcher and all those places. Google play, wherever you listen in, share it, please. I hope we earned a five star review. And yeah, Profit first professionals. Oh, my God, this organization.

I know.

I just wonder, are there some steps.

That you can take?

There is. You can if you want to be. You set me up. I know you're ready for this, aren't you? So here's what you can do. You can find a profit first professional. These are profit first advisors. People have been coached by our organization. They've become certified in profit first. They've passed our test. They've implemented profit first in their own business. They can walk you through becoming a profitable business. They can coach you. They work for, not for profits too.

How?

I know this is the big villain, but how do you do it? Here's what you do. Step one, first you go to profit first professional. Step two. Step two is you fill out the form. Actually, step two, there's a video to watch that explains how, how to get a Profit first professional. Step three is then you fill out the form instead. Boom, you click on. That was a good one. You click on submit. And then we will introduce you to a profit first professional, someone who will work with your company. We have specialists in all different industries. So we don't care if you're a non profit, if you're a pizza shop, if you maybe you have a firehouse where you're trying to get that thermometer to go higher. We have a profit first professional who specializes in what you do. So do that now. Go to profitfirstprofessionals.com and we'll hook up you up. Do it, do it, do it now. I think we're out of here, people.

We're done.

Cool. All right, bye, everybody.

Bye.