Stress & The Nonprofit Founder

I'm doing okay.

Yeah, I heard. So what are we talking about today?

You know, something like— I just came in, it's just like exhaling, you know? And the stress of the nonprofit founder. You know, we talk a lot about, um, you know, how do you start a nonprofit, how do you build a nonprofit, but something I was talking about was how do you get through the process mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually? You know, because those are the components that we forget about when we're building our nonprofit. But it takes a holistic approach as an individual in order to build the nonprofit. So it's like, how do you explain all this? So stressful sometimes.

Okay.

Yeah, that's what I think we should talk about. That's one of the reasons why I started the Nonprofit Founders Club is because when I was building my nonprofit, there was so much I didn't know, and it was such a learning curve. And it's still every day a learning curve. It's so much stress and so many obstacles. And you go on and on. Anybody out here is starting or started or building nonprofit, you can probably relate. But it was so challenging. And sometimes I would be frustrated, I would be crying, I would just be upset. I wouldn't know what to do. And I didn't have anyone to support me. No one talked about that. Everybody talks about what you got, all the things you have to do. No one ever talks about the person getting through the journey every day. I talked to a lot of nonprofit founders today and they're just stressed, crying, upset. And I always said, if I— whenever I was able to, I want to go back and provide that support. So the Nonprofit Founders Club, we teach you how to do all that, but I want us to really have that support system, that sister and brotherhood that we need, that family, you know, to help us through the process, for the journey.

Okay, so give us an example of how, um, you know, like one of these stress points and how you would work through it.

Oh my goodness. Okay, so where's— so in the— so in the beginning, the stress point was trying to figure everything out. The stressor was, you know, you're spending all the money out of your pocket to build your nonprofit and you're not getting donors. No one will help you. You're required to do so many different things. You want to get in the community and you still have to work and you still have your family, you still have to care everything out of your pocket, but you know this is something that you really want to do, and that could be stressful. You know, you have a vision and you have a goal, you're trying to figure it out because you don't have anyone really helping you try to figure it out, and then you are depleting all of your resources. But the resources that you also are depleting are your mental and emotional resources. We talk about trauma— this can cause a lot of trauma if you're not balanced, you don't have that balanced approach, that support of building a nonprofit. So that's just in the beginning while you're trying to get it off the ground. Right? Okay. And then as you get it off the ground, you're like, okay. So I call it the birthing stage. So we're birthing our baby, you know. You're going through all these, all the, uh, pains. What do you call them, the, the pains when you're giving birth? What do you call those pains? Labor. Labor pains. And that's what you're doing in the beginning. You're having those real strong labor pains and it hurts, and you don't have no doula, you don't have no coach, you have nobody, and you just crying out.

Okay, so then stressing would be getting started without resources, so, or limited resources. And resources could be financial, could be emotional, it could be, um, um, actual physical resources like a place to work out of if you, you know, are in a small home or, um, that sort of thing, right?

And even the stress of trying to figure out what am I supposed to do. So say you submit something, it gets rejected, like, what am I supposed to do? How do I get funding? That is so stressful. Okay, so then you went and get rejected.

So then another stress point would be finances. And so finances, that would be how you get funding, how you get— how you, you know, bring in money, right? Um, also, um, if you are submitting grants and other proposals for financing, we did the whole thing last month on sponsorship. So if you're just constantly being, um, receiving rejection That would be okay.

All right. And then another stressor— there's so many stressors even in just the beginning. I think we could spend this whole part just talking about the birthing in the beginning of the stresses and anxiety. And then you have your family who's depending on you, right? And you're taking time away from them to build this organization. And then it's stressful because you talk about it so much and you haven't been able to birth it, and your people are like, yeah, there she is, there she's again. She's talking about it and you want to just talk to somebody about what's going on and they're tired of hearing it, right? Because you've been doing it for such a long time and you've been struggling and that's a stressor in itself, you know. So some of the things that— and we don't, you know, when we're building our nonprofit, we don't take care of ourselves because it's about our nonprofits, about our baby. And just like a parent, right? It's about our baby, it's about in the community. So we're not getting rest, meditation, doing yoga, exercising, eating healthy. There's so many things that we could do Just talking to someone, knowing when it's time to take a break. There's so many different things that we can do to relieve the stress. No one ever showed me, no one ever taught me because everybody's busy building their nonprofit and everybody's busy doing what they want to do. And then you have the people, I'm just gonna put it out there, some of you might experience today. Yeah, there is that crab in a barrel syndrome, right? So you have people that's trying to get up and they're not, they're pushing you down. They don't want to help you pull you up. And so you're fighting against that. So there's so many things to fight with and people aren't talking about it. This. I'm not talking about that, that part of building your nonprofit. And there's so much more because I've been doing this for what, since 1987? I founded my nonprofit. I've been doing all this. So all these years, there's something all the time. So hopefully with our series, we're going to be doing a series on stress and the nonprofit founder, and we'll be able to talk about, you know, more and more and more what— where you at and different things that you can do and how the Nonprofit Founders Club can support you. Even if they could just, you know, you can go get another resource there's a lot of people who are getting in this field because they have this passion or they've had the experience. So sometimes you may have people in recovery that says, hey, I've been in recovery now, I want to start my nonprofit. Hey, I've gone to— I've been to therapy, I want to start my nonprofit. Hey, I've been through trauma, I want to start my nonprofit. So we do this and we take all that stuff that we've been through and we put it towards our nonprofit. We stop working on ourselves, and that's something that we cannot stop doing.

Yeah, yeah, awesome.

And I know you, you are, you know, you talk about solopreneur, you're so— you've been solopreneur and have the challenges in that. Yeah, you know, doing it by yourself can be some of the biggest challenges you can have.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, I think it's great that we'll, we'll talk about this throughout the month, and you know, hopefully people will walk away with some ideas and things to try and challenges, um, to try and relieve some of the stress of being a solopreneur. But I hope for all the new nonprofits out there that they will seek out the Nonprofit Founders Club, um, because I've only heard like good things about how the club supports individuals as they're building their nonprofits. And I've seen the results of people literally building their nonprofit.

Yeah, it is. And that support, you know, they're building it, but it's like, oh, you know, so don't have to struggle alone. You really don't. We're, we're setting up support groups and, and, um, for our clients, we're setting up giving them services to help them better. So we all need services. It's funny, when I was in the field, they're always— I was always hearing A therapist needs a therapist and a counselor needs a counselor, and you need to continue doing it. And a nonprofit founder needs another nonprofit founder. And that's who we are in the Nonprofit Founders Club.

Excellent. Yeah.

So have a good week, everyone. I know I got this thing going on because my background, because I'm, you know, we're always traveling, so I'm away from my home, so I couldn't— my background. So see that hand go through there. Okay, so, so we'll see you soon. And so thank you, um, Antonette. It's always a pleasure talking to you. Thank you, Vanessa, for getting some information. So I love everybody. Peace and love. And, uh, nonprofits, you guys, we got to keep rocking this world. So talk to you soon.