Book Review: Fundraise Awesomer

VO: Get ready for your semi-regular dose of random ideas from the guys at Codelation. We like to talk about big ideas companies that are winning, and those that aren't along with current events in our crazy world of software startups. So come along with Erick and Josh, who challenge you to think big, start small and turn your ideas into something on this episode of, from idea to done

Josh: Hey everyone. I'm Josh

Erick: and I'm Erick and today's idea is work week organization. And we're going to base this off of our crazy friend, Patrick Kirby. He's written a book called Fundraise Awesomer, and I know the book is kind of directed to people in the nonprofit sphere, but I wanted to review it from a perspective of a sales and marketing person.

Josh: Patrick is really just a delightful human being, even on my most positive and exciting, excited moments. I run probably 20% of his baseline of energy.

Erick: He makes everyone kind of be like, yeah, or your, I can't talk today. And that is what it is. Anyway, one thing I've learned over my years in sales is that people who are great in nonprofits are really good to associate with. You learn really applicable things to do with, for your business. And like realistically sales is fundraising give or take out like really little bit. We're all kind of asking for money. I would buy basically anything from Patrick based on his energy and overall awesomeness. And so that made this book worth the read.

Josh: So what were some of the takeaways from the book?

Erick: One of the biggest takeaways is planning, disgusting planning and routine as a high energy person. Myself. I've been saying for that for like the past couple of years now is to focus the laser. And one of the big takeaways from the book is it says, Mondays are for planning. Tuesdays are for doing Wednesdays are for documenting. Thursdays are for celebrating and Fridays are for appreciating. And this isn't a hundred percent of what I've implemented into my week, but I have taken some nuggets and applied them to my work week.

Josh: I like that. I think it's good to silo your activity around energy levels. I try not to have sales meetings on Fridays as I'm pretty low energy by the end of the week. Uh, but another book that I read called fanatical prospecting talks about protecting the golden hours. Basically don't do email or social social media or distractions during the time that you shouldn't be talking to leads

Erick: For my takeaway, the rule I kept as Mondays are for plannings. I don't schedule anything on Monday morning anymore. And that gives me a chance to kind of look at my upcoming week and prepare my Tuesdays and Wednesdays are for doing coffee, lunches, networking, all the crazy things I do. And then Thursdays and Fridays are for marketing. I kind of implement some gratitude and celebrations into that. And I write actual thank you cards and online reviews to area businesses. I like the Friday before I leave. And so I review my document each week and I give myself a grade.

Josh: So as the boss, what was your grade this week

Erick: Sees the past two weeks since I started doing this. And that's mostly due to me not going at the gym and planning my time accordingly and not getting these episodes recorded. But I think, I think we're getting into like the B realm this, this week, organized action planning, gratitude and celebrations and tracking are some of the stems of kind of like the best non-profits that I know. And at the same time, there's the stem of all of the best salespeople that I know.

Josh: Yeah. I think it's really easy to get busy, being busy and not doing something that's the most important by being intentional with your week, have a better shot of getting through all the must do's for your week.

Erick: And like one last little tip from the book that I wanted to share was the quote. You can't ask anyone for a donation before, you know, the name of their dog. And I think that that's true and asking for business,

Josh: You know, I think in our world, uh, we need to know what's important to the partners we're talking to, uh, you know, whether that's a vendor or a client, um, some people favor price, some need to know that they're heard others just want the final product and tell them when they're done. It's not a one-size solution for sure. So what, what was your big overall takeaway from the book from me, from you? Your

Erick: Sales people should implement practices used by great nonprofits. If someone is great in the nonprofit world, they're doing it with less time and with less money than regular businesses. And so we should try to learn,

Josh: Thank you for listening to this episode. If you know a startup that could use our random advice and thoughts, have the subscribe and leave a review on iTunes.