Kathleen Janus: Social Startup Success

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All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Kathleen Janice with us. She's a lecturer at Stanford's program on social entrepreneurship and the author of Social Startup Success. So welcome to the show.

Thanks for having me, Tyler Wagner.

Of course. Pumped to have you here. We'll dive into the first one. The first question I have for you, Kathleen, is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?

Hmm. I think that, you know, I grew up in a house where my parents were very involved in the nonprofit sector, and they served on dozens of boards in the small town where I grew up in California over the years. And so the conversations at our dinner table didn't just revolve around the people in our community who needed resources in order to be able to survive, but did the organizations themselves have the organizations that they needed to survive and thrive? And so that story, that, that story of my upbringing is really what has moved me to focus my entire career on supporting nonprofits so that they can really make a difference. And maximize their potential for impact on these social causes that we all care so much about.

And what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?

I have spent the past 5 years researching how nonprofits succeed and scale, and I went out and I interviewed 100 social entrepreneurs and kept waiting for someone to say, well, it's just charisma that gets someone ahead, or a great idea. No one said that. And it's not that those things aren't important, but it's really these strategies that I talk about in Social Startup Success that lead organizations to succeed. And everybody can learn how to do better at leadership and storytelling and fundraising and, and, and the strategies that I talk about.

Yes. I love that you took that initiative, just went out and interviewed 100 of them. That's so cool.

Or crazy.

Yeah, well, I interview a lot of people, so to me it's not crazy. And what is your best piece of overall business advice, not necessarily industry-specific?

My advice that I always give, especially to young people who I teach at Stanford, is to follow your passions. You should never be involved in work they don't care about. I think we've all had jobs, maybe summer jobs growing up that we could have done without. I personally worked at a dry cleaner for my years in high school. But, you know, once you are in the working world, to the extent that you can do work that you care about, you're going to be more successful. Because you are going to be able to apply yourself in ways that you wouldn't if you weren't passionate about the causes that you care, that you're working on.

And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?

I would tell myself not to be so stressed out, to just relax a little bit. But then again, that, that stress is what drives me and oftentimes helps me me to stay up a little later than I would otherwise.

So, and in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?

The key to happiness for me is spending time connecting with my friends, my family, the people that I care about. I mean, ultimately that's what life is all about. Those are people who keep me honest and they know who I am. They know me and I think that the research shows that people who do prioritize social connection are ultimately happier.

And what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?

Well, Social Startup Success would be the best book that I've read lately. But other than my own book, one book that I've read recently that I loved was Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance. And it was really an exposé of his life growing up in the hill towns of, of, of Middle America. And it really just shows that there's people who are living different realities and people face enormous challenges. And we all, I think, have to be empathetic to each other in this country in order to understand where we're coming from and not just our differences, but our similarities and our, how we're all human.

And what is your favorite quote and why?

My favorite quote is the Margaret Mead one about never underestimating the power of an individual to make a difference, because I think we all have the capacity to make social change and, and, and really move the needle on causes that we care about. And you really just have to jump in. We're living in a philanthropic renaissance where there's an opportunity to give back now more than ever. And that's a really exciting world to live in.

Yes. Thank you so much for coming on. The last question I have for you before we let you go is where is the best place for people to find you online?

You can find me at kathleenjanus.com, J-A-N-U-S, and you can buy your copy of Social Startup Success on Amazon Barnes Noble or anywhere online on your favorite, uh, retail outlet.

Perfect. Thank you again for coming on. We appreciate it.

Thanks, Tyler Wagner.