In this episode of the Nonprofit Founders Club, hosts Vanessa and Antoinette discuss the common problem of nonprofit founders and small‑business owners spreading themselves too thin. They outline how over‑extension shows up as fatigue, missed appointments, documentation errors, and personal sacrifices. The conversation pivots to concrete solutions: systemizing work through detailed calendars, creating consistent filing systems for both paper and digital documents, and establishing a disciplined morning routine (the 5 AM/5:30 AM Club) to set the day’s tone. Vanessa shares her experience of using a structured schedule and a 100‑day streak of the 5 AM Club, while Antoinette describes her own calendar layout and her aversion to filing that she overcomes with a simple system. The hosts announce two upcoming short trainings – one on how to schedule your day effectively and another on building an organized filing system – aimed at helping listeners prevent burnout and sustain their nonprofit’s mission. They close by emphasizing the ripple effect of staying focused, encouraging listeners to join future sessions.
Chapters
Afternoon. Good afternoon. Well, I'm still in the morning time, so—
well, I guess it is, it's very close to afternoon. That's probably what made me think of it.
Yes, girl, you know why? And you know why you're probably thinking that? Because you're probably one of the people that we're gonna talk about today that spreads theirself too thin.
I do not.
If you are a business owner starting a business, running a nonprofit, have a family, going to school, working a full-time job, want to have some— you are probably spreading yourself way too thin. So I know you are.
This is true.
This is true.
I, I actually, I think though, and I think this is what you're going to get into, I think I know what saves me. Um, so let's just kind of talk about it real quick, you know, like Running yourself thin kind of shows up in sleeping too much, always being tired, um, so low energy, right? And then it'll show up in mistakes. Like, um, you know, we, we try and edit a document, and especially when you're— when you're a business owner, there's tons to read and tons to create. And then you'll see your mistakes in your documentation, you know, you'll see your mistakes and missed appointments, you'll see your mistakes and getting your times confused and those sorts of things. Um, so running yourself, spreading yourself kind of thin shows up in all kinds of ways. Sacrificing family events for work or Um, you know, or, um, overbooking yourself and thinking like you can run from— you know, I live in the, uh, the— what do they call the DMV? The District of Maryland, Virginia area. And you could say like, oh, I'm gonna go over to the Capitol and then I'm gonna go down to, you know, like, just think like each place I'm going is at least 45 minutes away from the other. And I'm, you know, like, I got 6 things and I'm gonna hit all 6 of them today.
Yeah, yeah, you can't run yourself thin. And that's what we do when we start— when we're starting our nonprofit, we— and running our nonprofit, we're always spreading ourselves thin. And I will— one of the things that I'm learning to do, because as you know, I'm— as I'm building the nonprofit club or Nonprofits Rocking the World, as I'm building I'm, I'm all over the place running myself thin. So there's two things that I have to make sure that I do, and the first one is to make sure that I start systemizing and getting things organized. And number two is not be a people pleaser. Yes, because those are two of the biggest things that makes you spread yourself super thin.
Yes. So the way that I like to systemize, you know, and especially in these situations, is I calendar everything. So on my calendar, you'll see that I get up at 5:30 in the morning, and it says that on my calendar, get up at 5:30 in the morning. And then I go to the gym for about an hour. And then, you know, like, it'll say eat breakfast at 10 AM, and then it'll say, you know, lunch at 1. Dinner at 5:00. Um, and then I have all my client work broken down in there, you know, meet with Vanessa, or, you know, work on Client A project and Client B project, and work on my own business. You know, I even have time for that. And then the very last thing on my calendar, it says at, um, 8 PM, it says bedtime routine. So I even have a routine for, you know, getting ready for bed, so that way I can make sure then that I'm in bed no later than 10 PM.
Okay. So yeah, and that, that is, that is a wonderful— I would love to be able to share a sample of what our calendars look like, right, and the different things that we do. I used to do a 5 AM club. Okay, I stopped. I did it for 100 days straight. But I— and I can tell that I miss it, you know, and that I need to incorporate it again. But it was very structured and we need that structure, especially when we're building our organization or we're trying to help other people.
Well, I'm so sorry. I was going to say we need that structure to maintain not spreading ourselves too thin. But also to maintain this good flow so that we know where we're going as we're, you know, going about our day.
Yeah, and it is— you do— you— and especially, I'm gonna take it back from when you first get your nonprofit. You're like, either you've done your paperwork or you've had somebody else do your paperwork for you, and you take it and you put it somewhere, and then you start running and doing things. And that right there, you automatically started spreading yourself thin. Because it's like, did you do— did you systemize what this paperwork is that you got? Did you put your new— your articles of incorporation, your 501— do you have it in one place on your computer and then put in a binder, right? Do you know what this information is? So we start building that foundation in the beginning and really understanding what this documentation is. You're not spreading yourself too thin, setting that time aside when you get your nonprofit status, 2 hours, and really understand it and put it where you need to put it. Because when something comes up and you got to start searching for it and you don't know what it is, you've already started to spread yourself thin.
Yeah. One of the things that I like to do with my clients and for myself is to create also filing systems. Filing systems. Yes. Yeah. So I, you know, like the, the number one thing that I hate the most, and I'm an administrative professional, And I hate filing. I hate it. But there's— I mean, we still have a need for paper in this day and age. Like, we just can't get away from it. I may not necessarily print everything that comes through. I may file it electronically and then, you know, file it in the filing cabinet. But yes, you know, so creating some kind of filing system is, you know, very important. Especially for those important documents that come through.
Yeah. Okay, so I'm going to ask something of you, and I'm just going to ask you because one thing for me is I'm that person— paper here, paper there. I have all kinds of stuff that I'm using to organize myself, and it's so challenging. Would you love— would it be great if we could get Antoinette to just, just maybe show us a simple system of how she files or what she thinks is filing? Maybe to do a behind the scenes? Sure. Okay, okay, that would be wonderful. And it wouldn't take any more than, what, 15 minutes maybe?
Yeah.
Okay, okay, so we'll set that up to do it behind the scenes and we'll let you know. We'll, we'll send out an email, we'll let, um, we'll set up a day and then just look behind the scenes and show you this is the things that you really need to do and start now, especially if you're just starting your nonprofit, you're starting any business that you have, is let's start setting the That's the systematic foundation.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. The one, the one last thing I want to say too about, um, spreading yourself too thin, um, it does happen. You know, I was teasing Vanessa saying this, that doesn't happen to me, but of course it does. It happens to everyone. Um, but one of the things that has absolutely saved me is having a um, my gym time in the morning. So you're going to have to find— and I think it's whatever you start your day with— you're going to have to find that thing that you can start first thing in the morning that kind of sets the tone for the rest of your day. So for me, um, if I don't get up at 5:30 or 6 o'clock, whichever one, and I don't— but the point is, if I don't get myself out of the house by 6 5:30, I'm not going to have as productive of a day because I will not have started out productively. So find that thing and, and commit to it. And like you said, you did the 5:30 Club. Did you do that with other people?
Well, the 5 AM Club, no, I was— I did it by myself, but it was— I know it was worldwide, this program I was doing. So it was— everybody was doing it at 5 AM. But then my son and his family, I challenged them and they did it. But it wasn't together. We would just clock in and say, today is the day.
Yeah, because maybe that's how some people need to start. And then you just take, like, even if you just start with 15 minutes at 5:00 AM to plan out your day in case you don't do it the night before, but to just get your day started.
So it sounds like we have two trainings coming up. One is to really just sit down and schedule your day and what that may look like. And number two is how to organize your filing system. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that would be good because— yeah, I love it, I love it, I love it. Okay, so that's what we'll, we'll do. So we'll set some time.
And, and this is the beauty of the Nonprofit Founders Club. I mean, we deal with the things that are specific to building your nonprofit And then also things that'll help you just generally.
So yeah, yes, because when you spread yourself too thin, you get— of course there's stress, overwhelming frustration, trauma, and then you want to quit and give up, right? And so that's one of the things we don't want to have to have you give up. And then sometimes you're forced to give up, you know. So those are things that we don't want to do, because if you start a nonprofit and you have that purpose and your passion and you feel like there's someone that you know you need to serve, they probably need your services. And if you don't put it out there, what is that gonna— what is that— how's that gonna affect them and affect the world? So we're all here as a ripple effect. So we want to make sure that you— if you're starting your nonprofit, we want your ripple effect to come out there. So yeah, yeah, that's good. Okay, so, so if you have— you're watching this live, or if you are watching the replay of this, we're going to make sure that you can link with us and get some information on when we're going to have the classes and get the replay. All righty, so thank you, Antoinette. I put her on the spot and she— she's not gonna be like online saying, no, I'm not gonna do it.
I spread myself thin for you, Vanessa.
He loves all of you. Thank you so much, it's a pleasure, and we will see you, um, everybody next week.
