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Telling Your Nonprofit's Storywith Dawn Gluskin Dawn Gluskinhas spent the past 12 years in the electronic distribution field. In 2008, she became Founder and CEO of SolTec Electronics, an independent distributor and procurement partner to OEM and EMS companies for hard-to-find and obsolete electronic components. A true entrepreneur story, she started SolTec by herself, working from her home office (when her first born daughter was just 6 months old) and quickly grew the company from $0 into a multimillion dollar revenue generating firm. As one of the pioneers in the movement to detect counterfeit components and clean up the supply chain, combined with a strong social media presence, SolTec achieved much notoriety in the industry during their 6 years in business. She has brought her accounts & expertise over to North Shore Components, an industry-leader in the counterfeit detection & avoidance movement with an ISO/IEC 17025 certified on-site test facility, OEM excess inventory in house, and AS6081, AS9120, and CCAP-101 certifications. Read the Interview Hugh Ballou: I met Dawn at Shannon’s Business Acceleration Summit. Dawn is also a presenter at CEO Space. She’s gone from zero to 97 in about three seconds. Her sweet spot, Dawn, tell us a little bit about your background and why do you do this? What is it that you do? Tell us a little bit about that and why. Dawn Gluskin: Sure. Thank you. Yes, I’m Dawn Gluskin, and my company is called Blissed Communications. I help entrepreneurs and nonprofits and leaders tell their stories that need to be heard in the world. I do this because it’s a really brilliant, powerful form of marketing. If you want to connect with the heart of your people, if you want to move people, if you want to impact people, you have to be a good storyteller. You have to be open and vulnerable. That is where all the connection and the magic happens. I teach this. I also work with people one on one to help them write their signature stories or website copy. All that good stuff. I also help them through their mindset and get to the heart of who they are. Sometimes, why people don’t tell their story is because either they don’t think they have a good one, they’re not interesting enough, nobody cares, or they’re scared to tell it, people are going to judge me, all that stuff as well. You, Hugh, asked how this got to be my message and my mission. That is actually a great story. I always knew I would be a writer when I grew up until the world convinced me I would never make any money doing that. So I went to school for business instead. That is what got me started in sales and marketing. I have been doing that in some capacity for the last 20 years. My journey took me accidentally into the fabulous ultra-sexy world of selling electronic components. I did that for 15 years. I was selling semiconductors to Fortune 500 companies. Made a lot of good money doing that. Started my own business. Went from zero to $3 million in revenue in our first two years. I always tell everyone I had five great years in that business. We were open for seven. Long, painful story short, ended up having to shut that business down. We lost a lot of money and couldn’t keep the doors open anymore. We had some government regulations come down that affected our bottom line. I went from zero to $3 million back to zero again. I carried a lot of shame around that. What’s next? I had to go back and work for one of my old competitors while I tried to get my life together. I realized two things. I was the same person who still achieved all of this stuff in the first place. Sometimes we have a failure happen, and we think all the good stuff we’ve ever done has been wiped out. I never wanted to sell electronic components when I grew up anyway. I wanted to write and to help people. So what ended up happening is I decided to write a blog post for The Huffington Postcalled “The Power of Owning Your Story.” The premise was either you own your story, or it owns you. What it owns you looks like is carrying around shame. I don’t want them to find this out about me because they will judge me, they won’t like me, they won’t want to hire me. I came out, I told my story, and two things happened. That weight, heaviness was lifted. The antidote to shame is vulnerability. It was no longer a burden. The other thing was people were reading it and thanking me for being vulnerable, “You inspired me to share my story. Can I hire you? I want you to help me write my story.” That’s how my new company was born. I realized there is a big need for that in the marketplace. People want to see more vulnerability, more authenticity. Stories are powerful. It is a way to make instant connection. I signed a five-figure contract from a blog post, which is unheard of typically. There are many meetings and things that have to take place to gain that level of trust. But stories connect that deeply. Here we are now. I am doing what I love, so that universal 2x4 over the head when I lost my business was actually a blessing in disguise. That is where I am now, and I love helping others tell their story. Everyone has their own version of that, their own signature story, that helps them connect. Hugh: That is a powerful reframing. We let those situations define us, and those are really learning opportunities, aren’t they? Dawn: Yeah. Yeah, everything is happening for us instead of to us. If you can take that on in your life, that simple statement, it’s really powerful. What’s the gift in this, I always ask. What is the gift? Why is this happening? What is the blessing here? Hugh: You said you didn’t want to sell electronic components when you grew up. That is one of the differences between men and women. Men never grow up. We define ourselves in funny ways, don’t we? I think you’re being transparent and being vulnerable with that story can in itself inspire a lot of people. You help people market by defining their language, building their story, building that whole image, that verbal image, to attract their market. Dawn: Yes. When people put themselves out there, whether it’s on their website, their copy, their message, their emails, their social media, a lot of times people- How do I say this? They don’t put their whole heart forward, their whole selves forward. What you end up seeing is some very boring, bland copy that doesn’t tell the story. It doesn’t give the readers any- Why do they care? They are afraid to come out and be who they are, or they don’t have the right words to say it. It’s all in their head. It makes perfect sense in here, and they try to put it out there, and it’s just not connecting. It’s not easy to do, especially when it’s your own story. You have lived your life for X amount of years, however long you have been on this Earth. There is a lot that has happened. How do I take that and put it into this, something that will make sense in my business? That is a challenge for people. But when you get that right, it really opens up everything. Hugh: Why do people feel like they can’t talk about their story? Why do they feel insecure about being able to share a story? Is it that they think they are putting too much attention on themselves? Why don’t people embrace this? Dawn: There are a few different things. One is putting attention on themselves. When it comes to sharing the highlights and big achievements and accomplishments, a lot of people are humble, so they don’t want to come across as bragging. They just feel uncomfortable about bragging themselves up. That is one thing that happens. Another thing is people put themselves in a box. There is a rulebook about what you are allowed to say, what you are supposed to say. Maybe a coach or a consultant, they have had some training about ten things of what not to do. We have all these rules in our life that become ingrained, so there is a lot of confusion around business and personal. Some people, the old school teaching is you keep them separate. They are two different things, and you don’t overlap them. There is a new paradigm in business where it all overlaps a little more, especially with social media. There is so much transparency going on. There is so much visibility. If you have a corporation and you have an oopsy-daisy, you can’t sweep that thing under the rug. You have to own it. You have to say how you learned, how you are going to be better because of it. That is a new way of doing business. People are used to doing business the old way, “Nobody cares about me. It’s just about the business,” but it’s all intertwined. Especially with the millennials coming up, they are all about transparency, all about, “Who am I spending my money with? Can I trust you? Are you going to do what you say you’ll do?” What better way to gain trust than by being open and by sharing your story? Hugh: There is your story, and there is also the story of the value of the work that your charity is doing. We are talking to clergy, nonprofit leaders, community leaders, organization chairs, association chairs. We are talking about people who- In my experience, organizations are not really good about sharing their story about the impact that their work has. There is various kinds of stories that I’m thinking about. When you are raising money, you are talking about the value of what you’re doing and the programs you’re doing and why it’s important. But it’s also important to describe the impact of what we’re doing. Dawn Gluskin is an expert because of her experience in life, in telling, in helping people tell a story. What I’m hearing, and I’m not sure you’ve used these words, but I’m hearing you talk about how to create a compelling story that has impact on the listener. In a nonprofit world, we are talking about the impact that we have on people’s lives. Speak to that a little bit, would you? Dawn: That is a brilliant distinction. The story always has to be about a person. It could be about the movement. It could be about what’s possible in the future. I’ll give an example. You and I were together at a summit, the Business Acceleration Summit, this past week. They had a dinner where they always invite a nonprofit. The nonprofit they invited to this particular awards ceremony was the Children’s Hunger Project. Their mission is they collect and pack food and they give it out to the teachers for children for their schools to take home on the weekends. During the week, they get free lunch. On the weekends, they go home and are hungry all weekend. They started this program to make sure they have food on the weekends and during the summer so they are always fed. An example of what happens sometimes is a nonprofit might talk about the features of what they do. The features of what they do would be we collect food, we package it, we give it to teachers, and they pass it out. They are telling you the how of what happens. Inside of that, you might be like, “Okay, that’s a worthy cause. I want to get involved.” But if you want to bring it to the next level, you bring in the story part of it. You bring in what’s possible. They did a brilliant job of this. They showed a video at the dinner that was really good. They interviewed one of the teachers. What they said was they have 3,000 children who qualify for this program and who need food over the weekends, but they only currently have enough money and products to feed 1,500. They give the food to the teachers, and the teachers have to dish it out and decide who gets a meal this weekend. One of the teachers was talking about how heartbreaking it is and how one of the students came up to her and was crying when he found out he wasn’t going to get a package to take home that weekend. He was like, “But I need it. I’m not going to have any food all weekend.” She was in tears, and the whole room is in tears. It goes from collecting food and passing it out, to this is a real person. He is going home without food. Can you imagine going a whole weekend without food? That is the power of how you can show your people, connect with their heart of what you are really doing. Hugh: That is powerful. I do remember that. They are raising money, but they are not raising enough money. In a place like that, they need to be able to accelerate their level of impact to donors. I am thinking there is a number of places that stories could be important. I am going to toss it to my co-host Russell David Dennis. He is the good-looking one on the other side here. Russell, in Aurora, they put Denver on the map, Aurora, Colorado. Russell, you worked inside of a nonprofit for 11 years, I happen to know. You were the person that helped them source funding. As you’re hearing her talk about stories, it would occur to me that there is more than one place that we need to develop stories. What are some of the things that come to mind for you? Russell Dennis: The trouble with stories are they are kinda a double-edged sword because Dawn talked about mistakes. I’ve had challenges. Who hasn’t? But we get stuck in the stories of a bad experience, and we drag that around. We can tell ourselves these stories that stick with us even though they are no longer true. If we are stuck in the wrong story, we give off the wrong vibration. Here’s the thing. We are telling stories. Nonprofits, you are telling a story, whether that is consciously or unconsciously. What comes off unconsciously a lot of times is scarcity. We don’t want to sound like we don’t have any humility. We don’t want to brag. The fact is that nonprofit leaders of these organizations that are serving people are bringing all kinds of value out there. You’re not showing up with your hat in your hand. All of these catastrophes can turn into superpowers when you put them into perspective. When you talk about these catastrophes and they don’t have any power over you, people relate to you. Whoa, okay. It’s some Superman figure that is worth a billion dollars. That is not their experience. They can’t imagine being in that place. Where does that level of consciousness connect? Heroes are people who others can relate with. They can relate with, Hey, they’ve been down, they may be experiencing some of that right where they are at this moment. They are down, they are struggling, they are having a hard time. But you come back. Ordinary people overcome extraordinarily bad circumstances to become heroes. People fit into that story. They want to be a part of that. They want to relate to that. That’s how you make that connection, that emotional connection. Vulnerability is a part of that. Vulnerability, transparency, authenticity, they want to know that you’re real. People who can relate to you are gonna support you. It took a while to work its way back around, but relationships. Everything is based on relationships. Where there is any type- To be successful in any area of your life, you have to build good relationships. Where nonprofits are concerned, they tell a story of scarcity. They tell a story of hard times. They pull on the heartstrings. Yes, there is need out there, but when you go out there and your narrative is about, “You know what? We gotta have this money because I don’t want to lay these three people off in the back office. They’re really nice people,” what you’re doing is talking about what you need. The narrative needs to be on, “Hey, these are the people we’re serving. We are bringing massive value here. Here is how we are making a difference in the lives of people who started at Point A. We move them to Point B with your help. But to move them to Point C, we want to partner with you to do this.” What does partnering mean? It could mean writing a check, it could mean serving on a board, it could mean volunteering. It could mean any number of things. But you have to determine what that is and talk to people in a way that resonates with them. Find out what matters to them, and explain how you’re solving a problem for them or bringing them value. It’…
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