Getting Your Ducks In Row

Hello, Vanessa.

Oh my goodness, you know, it's been a fabulous week. I've been talking to a lot of people that's like, you know what, I want to start my nonprofit, but there's so many things that I have to do before I can even get started. Yeah, you know, and it is, and it's like we know we have a purpose or a passion, but sometimes we try to get all of our— anybody know— we try to get all of our ducks in a row before we get started. And 9 times out of 10, we're never going to get all our ducks in a row. It's not going to happen. And so if you have to just start with one duck at a time, right?

Yeah, I would even go so far as to say not even 9 times out of 10, it's like 50/50, you know. And, and that really doesn't have anything— just so people will gauge expectations— that doesn't have anything to do with being ready and being efficient or set up. It just has a lot to do with the simple fact that sometimes we get stifled by perfection and we don't realize it, and so we're just not moving forward. So, and I'm speaking from experience as I work on my website for the last 3 months now.

Yes, or they get the— what do they call it— analysis paralysis. You look at all— you're like, I want to start a nonprofit, and you go to start looking at all the paperwork and you get so overwhelmed, and so you just paralyzed, and you're like, wait, I have to wait until I get enough money to pay somebody to do this for me, you know, versus saying, you know what, I can do this myself, or I'm going to take a workshop or a clinic and learn how to do it myself. So we get paralyzed with all the paperwork are inundated, you know, with all the stuff we have in our life. You know, we have our family, our kids, our jobs. So it's like, ugh, got to get this in order before I can start my nonprofit, you know. And then you're like, well, it costs X amount of dollars. People want X amount of dollars to do it for me. I can't do this, you know. So I, you know, so we have all these reasons why. But I always go that I think it's really important that if we know we want to do something, it's in us to do it, and we feel that spirit moving us, that sometimes we need to move and not get paralyzed. By all the paperwork because there's such a need. And the paperwork is good to get kind of paralyzed and to see it, because I believe that you need to know the paperwork yourself. You know, it's one thing to say, you know what, I'm gonna save my money and pay somebody else to do it, but it's another thing to say, you know what, I need to learn all the ins and outs and all the legalities that I can about the nonprofit. If you're going to talk about getting the ducks in a row, that should be one of the ducks you you wait till you have in a row when you can really learn about nonprofit, not just to jump in and say, I'm gonna, I'm gonna get my nonprofit, but not to learn about it.

Yeah, which is why this class that I'll be leading in October is going to be very great for that purpose. I mean, you'll have hands-on— people will have hands-on experience to set up their own nonprofit So therefore they're getting that information firsthand for their very own organizations.

Yeah. And it's one thing people say, you know, you, you, you have— you need to get your 501. I remember I was told you need to get your nonprofit status. I'm like, okay. And it's like, how? Go down to the Secretary of State, go to the federal government. And I did the paperwork, but I didn't know why I was doing it. I didn't know why they were asking me the questions. I didn't know why it had to be done in a certain way. And what the ramifications and the benefits was in the long run. And that education, by me doing it and learning the why, has benefited me throughout my whole 35 years career, because you use that information throughout the data. But if you don't know it and you didn't do it yourself, it makes it a little bit more challenging to really say, I'm leading, I'm going to lead this. To lead it, you have to really know it. And sometimes you don't have to have everything together, but you get the bits and pieces along the way. Then you learn what the duck you're doing.

Exactly.

So yes, I'm, I'm thankful that you're going to be running the class. That's a nonprofit clinic, which is a 6-week class that's going to walk you step by step by step. And it's not just here, just do the paperwork, but you're showing them how and why to do the paperwork. And then you're accessible for them to ask those questions that they might not otherwise get. And I believe— I'm always going to say that I believe in the conception, right? And, and doing that paperwork is a conception. So I really appreciate and thank you that you're giving— you're offering this to a lot of the nonprofits, because a lot of people get their nonprofit status, they didn't know that information, and they lose their nonprofit status.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Yeah, yeah. So don't wait till you get all your ducks in a row before you get started, you know, with your nonprofit, because there's a lot of work because you're going to be learning along the way. You know, you're not going to have— the family's not always going to be together, the money's not always going to be together, but you just have to get started. So if you're interested and you know that you want to start your nonprofit and you haven't yet, or you started and you didn't know what you didn't know and now you want to go back and know, then I want to encourage you— we want to encourage you to, um, register for the Nonprofit Clinic. So it's not open yet, we're getting everybody on the waiting list It's a personal class, so you're going to want to get on the waiting list to be one of the first to know because it's not just open to everybody. Okay, so here's the link, um, for the next class, and it's starting in October. Yep. Okay, so thank you all. Have a good weekend. And, uh, I'm trying to think of a duck word. Don't be ducking around all weekend. Get your work done. We'll have to tell you why we're doing— why we're doing the duck thing, but we'll tell you later.

Bye-bye.