E3 – Selling everything and moving to Guatemala with George Sisneros

George Sisneros with his family

Episode Transcript

Diana: Today I am talking with George Sisneros who is in Guatemala and has an amazing charity, he founded himself. So this is going to be very, very interesting. Thank you very much for joining me, George, and welcome.

George: Hi. Thank you.

Diana: I just want to give it to you to tell a bit about yourself and why is fundraising so important to you and what got you started in fundraising?

George: Okay, my name is George Cisneros. I’m actually a Christian missionary in Guatemala. So, I’m from the United States. I’m from Colorado and eight years ago last month we moved to Guatemala. To be honest with you, we didn’t know exactly what we were doing. We felt that God was calling us to Guatemala to help his people. We made the decision, at the time we had two very successful small businesses. They had weathered the recession very well, because of the types of businesses they were. So, we sold our businesses, we sold our home, we sold our cars, we sold everything we owned, except for, two suitcases each.

So, we also brought three kids. At the time they were like nine, 10, and 11, I think and we moved to Guatemala. But, here’s the thing when we made that decision, we didn’t know how we were going to afford it. After we sold everything, we probably had two years’ worth of living expenses and we knew that. We had no help. How do we do this? Our church had never sent anyone long-term. We really didn’t know how we were going to pay for it. So, we had to figure out fundraising pretty quickly. So, by asking around and we just kind of made it up as went really and we started talking to our friends and family, letting them know what we were going to be doing and asked them if they would consider partnering with us as we go to Guatemala.

At the time, like I said, we didn’t even know what we were doing here. We just knew that God was calling us here. We did know that because of our faith, that we would go to Guatemala and serve him in some capacity. What does that look like? Because Guatemala is a developing country we figured it probably had to do with maybe you working in an orphanage. Maybe it was building houses for the poor. Maybe it was feeding the poor. We really didn’t know, but we knew that we were called. We made the decision. Seven months later, we had sold everything and we are on an airplane to Guatemala City.

We had a place to rent for the short term and at that time we had about 65% of our living expenses rates. That was basically just done by calling friends and family and saying, Hey, listen, this is what we believe we’re going to be doing in some capacity. We’re going to be helping the poor but we knew that we also only had two years worth of savings to go along with that and then we would have to figure something out. Right at about the year and a half mark, we realized that the hole was bigger than we anticipated. So, we were in Guatemala and so we couldn’t now just go visit friends and families and visit people too to raise this money. At this point, really there’s no magic. This is just literally, you’re reaching out to people and asking them to partner with you in whatever it is that you’re interested in, fundraising for.

When we went we’re in Guatemala, we needed to raise another 35% to be at 100% living expenses. So, we just sat down and this is the most basic way to fundraise. I think it’s very important, very powerful because these are long-term commitments from people. So, we tell them, would you partner with us for a year or more? They might send $20 a month. They might send $50 a month. We have had some people send $100 or $200 a month. So, here we are in Guatemala. We make a new list of people who were not partnered with us financially, but that we wanted to reach out to. So, we came up with a list of about 35 people.

The way we came up with that list is we went to social media. We went to our Facebook page. So, we had a ministry Facebook page. We had a personal Facebook page, and whenever we would share something about the ministry about the things that we were doing in Guatemala, we went down the list. Okay. Who commented? Who is interested in what we’re doing? Who commented on what we’re doing? Number one. Then also just who’s consistently liking the things that we’re posting about what we’re doing. That’s the majority of what made up that list of 35 people and then we just sent them a quick email and the email was, hey, just wanted to pop in and say hi. I was wondering if we could get together over coffee, via Skype and we would like to tell you about what we’re doing here in Guatemala, what our future plans are, and how you might be able to partner with us.

That was it I think out of 35, 30 got back to us and said, yeah, we’d love to meet with you. Out of that. 30 I want to say 20 to 25 people said, yes, we want to partner with you. Again, it was varied. So, it’s like 20 to $30 a month. But, at the end of that campaign, we were at 98%. We have never had to go back. So, eight years later, we’ve never had to go back and re-raise that personal support. Along the way, we’ve had all kinds of things to raise money for. We have built a school, we built a clinic. We have built, I don’t know, a dozen houses for people in Guatemala and we have helped, I can’t even count the number of people we’ve helped with medical needs in crisis situations.

Diana: Okay, first off, I just want to say, wow. The decision to just sell everything and go to a foreign country. That must’ve been a huge decision to make.

George: It was crazy. We’d never lived anywhere else. We were both from Colorado. We’d never lived outside of even Colorado, more or less the United States. So, it was a big decision for sure.

Diana: I think that’s amazing. I have a couple of questions. You obviously did a huge amount of work in motivating people to help you out too and get all of these things built and I want to get more into what kind of things that you did after the initial funding to, fund the school and the clinic and stuff like that. But I have a question about you weren’t able to sit with people so you did it via Skype. But do you see a difference in, meeting in person like you did before you left and then doing the coffee meetings over Skype? Is there a difference in how well that works, looking at it from a fundraising perspective?

George: Well, so let me address something. I think, first of all, and the first thing I want to address is that fundraising is scary. It was scary in the beginning and it was scary the second time around from afar, even over Skype. It’s just scary. I think, we have a great fear of rejection and so here’s what most of the people listening right now, probably this is what they’re thinking. They’re like, okay, I’m going to post the fundraiser on Facebook or whatever social media and I’m going to send an email and the money is just going to roll in. I am telling you right now that, that won’t work.

I always post to Facebook and I always send out emails when we’re doing fundraising, but only as this very extra supplement and if something happens there, we’re grateful for it. But the reality is that’s not going to help. I’m sorry to say that and to be the bearer of bad news, but if you want to be a good fundraiser, unfortunately, you just got to face your fears. You got to get out there and do it and after you do it two or three times over maybe five times, it gets easier. So, I just want to, address that first of all, Second of all I read this blog. I don’t remember who wrote it, but I saved it and it’s a face to face request is 34 times more successful than email.

There’s not even a comparison, 34 times more successful is just an insane amount and it’s a big difference. So, we didn’t see any difference. I’ll tell you the difference I did see. The only difference we saw was that in the beginning we didn’t really have a vision for what we were doing and it was harder to relay that to the people we were talking to. We were just kind of like, well, this is what we’re hoping to do and we’re really excited about it. I believe that the reason it went so well the second time over Skype is:

Number one- they’re like, oh my gosh, you guys have been in Guatemala for a year and a half. Of course, we want to talk to you.

Number two- is we actually had a vision for where God was leading us and what he wanted us to do. and we were passionate about it and we were able to portray that.

So, more than anything obviously with what’s going on in the world right now with COVID, a lot of things are going online. I think that’s perfectly fine. I think the biggest key really is your focus and your vision and how excited are you about it? Let me just tell you that could be the most important thing in your fundraising. We have somebody who’s on our board of directors and he’s actually our treasurer and he’s our biggest fan. He has been out here, to Guatemala I don’t even know how many times, like a dozen times in eight years. He is a part of this ministry. I mean, he’s on the board. He raises an insane amount of money. I think he alone raises approximately $20,000 a year for this ministry. We’ve never asked him to, I mean, he just does it because he’s excited about it. So, there is a huge value in being massively excited about what you’re doing and passionate about, what you’re raising money for.

Diana: Very good point with Facebook. That’s my experience as well. It works a little bit but it doesn’t really compare at all to being personal with people, either talking to them or writing them. But you’re actually saying that it’s maybe more important to have a vision and a goal Then having the face to face, like being in the same room as people.

George: Yeah, I guess. I mean, we’re learning now but I don’t think you have to be in the same room for sure. but you do have to either make a phone call which I think is probably just as good. I think that you can Skype or Zoom, I think that’s great. I think that that’s maybe equal to. I really think the more important part is that you’re passionate about what you’re doing. I think most people listening right now, probably you’re really passionate about. So now if you’re passionate about it, the next step is really just getting over your fear and the only way to do that is just keep doing it, just do it all the time. Face your fears, start out with one a day, and build up.

Diana: I think you’re right. You need to overcome that fear to be able to do it and it gets easier. It really does.

George: It does. I think a lot of people, what they do is they have these great ambitions to raise all kinds of money, which is great. They make a list of people that they’re going to be in contact with, or the first they do is they send out Facebook post an email and they come back and crickets, nobody has responded. So, that’s okay. I’m going to talk to people. They make this list of 50 people or whatever and then they start going through that list and they’re like, well, maybe not them, maybe not them. Before you know it they’ve eliminated most of their list and they’ve only called two or three people and because they were so nervous and they weren’t able to explain themselves they quit.

Diana: It’s a shame because they could get a lot of money if they just push through that. Okay, another question about what you said because you said that you call it partnering with the people who contribute on a regular basis. When you say a partnership, is that a monthly donation?

George: There are two things there. In regards to a partnership, somewhere along the line, maybe three years in of being in Guatemala we realized we can’t be here without a lot of people believing in what we do. We’re here, but if we didn’t have, I don’t know, 150 people helping us out every single month, we couldn’t be here and we couldn’t do the things that we’re doing. We realized that they are our partners and when people give to you, they’re just like, okay, here it is, you know, good luck and here’s my donation. But if you realize their importance and I’m talking for one time donations or long-term donations but, mostly for the long-term donations. We have people that have given to us for eight years straight. They’ve never once missed.

So, partners, we don’t really consider what they’re doing donating to us. They’re basically here with us. We just happen to be a part of this body that maybe it’s the head or the hands that are like right here but the reality is that without all those people helping us we wouldn’t be here. So, really we are partners. Three or four years in we actually made a decision at the beginning of the year, my wife and I sat down and were like, okay, what are our goals for this next year?

Our one major goal for that year was everything that we wrote and everything that we did, every communication we had with people was to help them believe that they are our partners. So, instead of saying, hey, thank you for your donation, it was more like we are so grateful that you’re partnered with us in this ministry and in what we’re doing here. Then when we would send them a personal update we would say, this is what you’re a part of. This is what you’re doing here. Don’t minimize the fact that you’re not here in understanding that you’re a very important part of what’s going on here. Does that make sense?

Diana: It totally does So, you would write a personal, thank you letter to everyone or a personal update to everyone. I’m just thinking you say you have maybe 150 partners and that’s a lot of a personalized thank you messages to write or calls to make but that’s the price in some way.

George: Well, so we also have a ministry to run. So, we build houses and we help people with medical needs. Right now, during COVID we’re feeding, literally almost over 1,000 people every single month. So, we do have a ministry to run as well. So, let me tell you that in the beginning, it was really easy to thank the number of people personally that were partnered with us. So it’ was easy to individually just thank them. We’re at a point right now where we’re busy busier, number one and number two is we do have quite a few partners so we can’t do that monthly. What we do is we communicate through email, newsletter. I try to do it weekly, but I’m not going to lie. It’s probably like every other week.

So, twice a month we send out photos, we send out a story about what has gone on in the ministry and we thank them that way but we keep them updated. So, if I could leave one thing with people who are raising money and fundraising is really that communication is so incredibly valuable. For example, in your case, I think not only communication but regular communication. So, a very minimum time that someone who is fundraising long-term. So, if somebody is going to be fundraising for a year, I would recommend they start an email list. People cringe at the idea of, okay, I’ve got to start this list and you write a minimum of monthly and you try to work up to two times a month and ideally believe it or not is to give them a weekly update.

Why is that? If you don’t write to them for three months, what happens is three months later they come and you’ve probably gotten these emails, hey, I’m sorry. I haven’t written in three months and that is like, I wasn’t waiting at my computer for that. So, it’s not that big of a deal, but the more consistent you are and the more regular you communicate, the more they feel connected to you and connected to what you’re writing about. So, they’re probably going to give more or more often.

So, if I could leave one thing with people especially for people who are raising the long-term. Listen, if you’re raising for a small project, maybe that is not necessary but if you’re going to be fundraising for a big project or long-term of like a year or more in our case, eight years or 10 or 20 or whatever it is you have to communicate and you have to communicate well. I think you should study writing and I think you should… So, for example, there’s a book I read “Ted Talks Storytelling.” It’s a very thin book. I’ve read a lot of books on writing and on how to tell a story, but it is the best book I’ve read. It’s called “Ted Talks Storytelling.? It’s by Akash, A-K-A-S-H Karia, K-A-R-I-A maybe.

Diana: We’ll link it in the show notes.

George: It’s a very inexpensive book. It’s like five or six bucks. It’s super thin. You can read it in like an hour and a half or an hour if you’re a good reader, an hour and a half if you’re like me. This book really tells you everything you need to know about telling a story, giving people updates about like, okay, this last month, this happened and this happened, and this happened, and this happened is really boring and people will get bored of that. So, when we send updates, we tell a story about a situation.

Whatever it is, we tell a story about generally about one person and this is how that unfolded. Maybe it’s about when we were giving food to someone in another village and the mom comes up and said, could you take a look at my son? We’re not doctors, but we’re like, yeah, we’ll take a look. Let’s see what it is. As it turns out he had this incredible foot infection and we took him to see a private doctor that day. He’s recovering, but he’s got a long way to go.

My point is that we told that story So, get good at storytelling, get consistent at sending out emails and this book will teach you how to write in the first person. When I write a newsletter, I might write it specifically to Diana. I literally would have you in my mind and a matter of fact, I would even type out, Hey, Diana, George in Guatemala, and I would tell this story about Christian. Then when I send it out, I would just take your name off, but it will give that incredible feeling. I can’t tell you how many people have written back to us and said, I felt like you were talking to me or I felt like I was right there.

So, if you write in a conversational style, And directly to one person because if you say, hey guys, I’m sorry to have written in three months. These are the things, this is a list of the 10 things we’ve been doing here. It’s a very boring read. I don’t know. That’s the one thing. If we had a choice of keeping social media, all social media, and we’ve got a very, very active, good social media group. On Instagram, I think we have like 10,000 followers and on Facebook like 3,500. If I had a choice of all social media or email, there’s no question. I would take the email because we are in control of that. I can send it out. I know who everybody is. It’s going to land in every single person’s email box and we’re on Facebook. As we know what the algorithms on social media we don’t know who’s getting it, or how often or anything. So, it’s a much better way to communicate with people.

Diana: I think you’re so right that communication is really, really important. You’re getting into the whole thing about there’s actually a huge difference between fundraising over time and fundraising for a smaller project, for example. So, I think it’s very valuable what you’re sharing. I hope this book is going to be available as an eBook.

George: I’m so glad you brought that up. Okay. So the book is called “Ted Talks Storytelling.” If you go to akashkaria.com, that’s his web page. I think you can get the audiobook for free and he sends out an email and all of his emails are very valuable. When you learn how to write well, you’re learning how to communicate well and it’s the whole game. I would also recommend studying copywriting. Look up copywriting. I don’t think most people really understand what copywriting is, but I would study copywriting and I would study storytelling.

Diana: Okay. It sounds amazing. So, you talked about getting things for donations.

George: We have, over the years, tried all kinds of different things. We’ve had a number of, Fundraisers where we give something in return. So, to make it legal they have to donate to you. So, whatever it was, it was a gift that we would give to them depending on the amount of their donation then that would determine the value of the gifts that they “got for free” For us, I think we’ve done it three times. We have found that it’s hard because you have to (a) pay upfront for whatever it is that you might be giving away. So, for example, one time we gave canvases of a volcano photo and scripture, I think at the bottom and there were different sizes.

So, if you give a certain amount, you got a bigger size, whatever. That was an absolute flop, we still have some. The other one was my wife and I designed a prayer journal and it’s just something that we were using on our own and so we printed it here in Guatemala and we actually had some leather covers made by another ministry here in Guatemala. We bought them from them for a cost and got them all to the United States to be shipped. We had a big campaign on that as well and our idea with that was we would just sell them and then take the profits. It was just a huge, huge amount of work. You have to find people to ship it. You have to have enough and the profit margin, whatever it was, it wasn’t that great.

What we found is that most people, just want to help the cause. They just want to give. Again, my experience, in my opinion, I think it’s better just to go in, tell a story, and ask them to partner with you. I think it was good for us to go through that process. Another thing that does not work for us is we did IndieGoGo. It’s like Kickstarter or GoFundMe. I say it didn’t go, well, let me take that back. It went well, but it was again very hard. I think that it could have gone easier. The reason it went as well as it did for us is that we have a huge number of people who we’re connected to through, like I said, social media and our email list is I think it’s right around 1,000.

So, we have a lot of people to outreach to. If you don’t have a lot of people to connect to, especially with email. You know, if you send an email out, they’re all going to get it. Now, whether they open it or not as a different story. But, if you don’t have a large group of people GoFund Me is not going to work well because no one is going to find you through the GoFundMe or IndieGoGo or Kickstarter.

You have to really promote it yourself and if you don’t have the engine behind that to promote it, it’s just not going to happen. Unless it’s like, sometimes you do have those kinds of viral campaigns, maybe someone has a big medical need or they’re in a car accident or there’s a family that lost something in the fire. I don’t know something like that is different, but if you’re fundraising for a cause, I have found personally that they don’t work very well unless you have a big following.

Diana: That makes sense. Then let’s say that I don’t have a big following and I want to raise $1,000. What have you done for small amounts like that earlier? Earlier, have you set anything up that could be a good start for someone who just really has the heart to donate to a charity of their choice?

George: I think it’s important to realize a couple of things. One is that, why do people choose to say $500 or $1,000? Is it because like, yeah, I think that’s a fair amount to give to that charity. No, they choose that because that’s what kind of, maybe they think they can raise. But if they could give 10,000 or 20 or $50,000 to that charity, I think they would.

I think it’s important to take a look at your goals and why you have those goals and then to stretch yourself. It’s like all right, well, originally I thought $1,000 but the reality is if I could get $5,000, wow. That would be better. Me personally, Diana I feel like the bigger, the goal, the more inspired I am.

Diana: I could not agree more.

George: I think it’s important to start there. I think you have to establish, okay why do I want to give that amount, and what if I could do more? Because I see all the time charities in Guatemala on Facebook and I see them trying to raise $500 and I was like, oh my gosh, like, I think I could raise $500. I could raise $500 in 10 minutes. So, why would you spend all that time that you could be doing whatever it is that you’re doing? instead of spending hours trying to raise $500. What could you do? I think if I wanted to raise a thousand dollars, there is no question.

First of all, I would have to be passionate about it. I would learn all I could. I would talk to people. I would talk to them and I would dig in and I would learn as much as I could and get as emotionally involved as I could. I would probably interview 10 people that had MS and how it’s affecting their lives. Because if you interview 10 people, you now have 10 stories and then what you do is you make a list. You don’t need these massive lists of 100,000 people on social media. Literally, if you had a list of 100 people that, you know, well, that you could call up and say, hey, how’s it going? you make that list, you get their phone numbers and you give them a call and you set up a coffee.

Personally, this is what I would do. I would set up for coffee and, again, the way I do it, and this was from trial and error and learning is, I always tell them, listen, I only have… When I get there, I have like 30 minutes. They need to know that you’re not going to take all night. That’s number one, that also sets a kind of a timer for you otherwise you will take all night because you’re so scared to even tell them about it that you spend 30 minutes just shooting the breeze, and then, you only have 10 minutes to tell them. So, you tell them, listen, I’ve only 30 minutes. It is so good to see you. Let me tell you about what I’m doing.

I am raising money for multiple sclerosis. This is the important part. This is why I’m doing that and I am looking people to join me in fighting this awful disease. You tell a story about a man who, you met and again, I don’t know. For example, I have a really good friend, Jim Dunlap. He has multiple sclerosis and he was one of the best realtors in our city. Right now he is confined to a wheelchair but this guy, man, he lives life to the fullest. He came out to Guatemala in a wheelchair and spent a week with us. So, anyway, you tell a story about Jim Dunlap and, how he’s got this and whatever that story is and say, how can you partner with us here?

Here are the ways, this is what I’m doing. I’m raising $1,000. Could you give $1,000 toward this project? I think if you had a list of 100 people, you could raise $1,000 if you had a story. The whole key is you have to be passionate about it and you have a story and that’s it. If you have that as part of what you’re doing. they will give. People have so much money. Let me just tell you this, people in the United States, even though COVID they have a lot of money, a lot of discretional money that they can give.

They want to give but they want to know that the money that they’re giving is going to a good cause. So, your job is to tell them a story. Any story is going to be way more valuable than any statistics about MS and how it affects people and blah, blabity blah. It’s all about the stories. They’re going to give as deeply as you feel about whatever you’re doing. If you feel deeply about it, if they feel you’re passionate about it, you’re not going to have a single person not give to you but you have to go in with a story. If you go in with statistics about whatever it is, it’s going to be 50:50.

Diana: What I’ve noticed is that… I don’t know how I even feel about it actually, but showing people that they are well-off, not economically, but in their health and in… Well also economically, but in their situation will also make them more likely to donate.

George: Yeah. So if it’s a health thing, right. But what you want to do is you want to show that to them. You don’t have to tell them, you can just tell the story. We have people who come to visit us here in Guatemala. We haven’t in a while because of COVID, but we have people come to visit us probably at some point it was like one group a month. But right now it’s like maybe four times a year, people come out to visit us and they see the poverty, it’s a developing country and the poverty is just thick. So, they see that and ask every single one at the end of their visit so what impacted you the most? Most of the time they’re going to talk about poverty and how good they have it in the United States. We never once told them anything about poverty or anything. they see it.

Diana: That makes so much sense. So, is there anything you would like to share about fundraising? Anything that you feel like, this, you really need to tell people to do or not to do?

George: Yeah, I think, the two main points I would want to leave with people is number one is, constant communication, but good communication. not just throwing stuff out there. Also when you’re sending those newsletters out. it’s very important not to ask every single time you send a newsletter. So, here’s this story. Can you give to this cause? That gets old really fast when you start seeing the trash bin regularly before they even read it.

So, I read a book by Gary Vaynerchuk. It’s called a “Jab, Jab, Jab Right Hook.” The whole premise of the book, the idea of the book is jab, jab, jab is like giving values. He says three to one. I prefer like seven to one. What I mean by that is we will write newsletters seven times in a row talking about all the things that are going on here in Guatemala. Then maybe, maybe one time in seven we’re like, hey, would you like to partner with us on this particular project? Give a lot of value and just ask every once in a while.

I see newsletters from other missionaries come across all the time and they’re like, every single time at the bottom of the newsletter, it says, would you prayerfully consider partnering with us or supporting us on this journey or something like that. Every single time. Well, if it’s there every time, if you’re asking every time number one, they know that and it just gets frustrating but also they go blind to that. They don’t even see it at the end. They don’t even notice that it’s there. So, I think study storytelling, be consistent and the only other thing I think, so that was one. I think the second thing I would leave is for people who are fundraising, maybe they’re passionate about something and they’re like, you know what, I’m going to make a one year, two-year, three-year commitment to fundraising for this particular project.

I just want to be a part of the team and I want to jump in so starting an email list. I think the biggest part of our fundraising comes in the form of $30 a person. So, we have established a middle school, but we also have an elementary school program. We have sponsorships set up for each of those kids so that we can provide teachers. We give them lunch every day, all their school supplies, things like that. So, for $30 a month, they get to sponsor one of those boys and we send them a profile with a photo. We have a list of frequently asked questions and so they realize that’s what they’re going to get. They can’t communicate with them. There are too many kids to do that with, but $30 is this magical number of what people give.

So, it’s a sweet spot of what they’ll give long-term. So, we have people, like I said, that has been giving us $30 a month for eight years and so when that kid graduates, we write to them and we’re like, hey, your kid graduated. We have a new group of boys coming in. Would you like us to put you on the list of potential sponsors? 99% of the time they say, yeah, absolutely. So, we don’t even have to go out looking for new sponsors because once they graduate a new group comes in and we take those people and transfer them over and we only have to end up looking for maybe five or 10 new sponsors.

Diana: I think it’s a great idea. I really think it’s amazing that you guys are helping so many people. I’m in awe, to be honest.

George: Thank you. Thank you. We feel called here to do this. So, we honestly feel like none of it is us. We just happen to be moving our hands and feet and we feel that God is really doing everything else. But we’ve learned a lot along the way. So, I’m really glad. Diana that you called and that we could talk and if you ever need anybody else, please reach out.

Diana: Thank you. If people want to read more about your foundation and maybe support it or just get to know a bit more about your school and stuff. Where would they be able to do that?

George: Yeah, so they can go to ordinarymissionaries.org or.com. It’s just ordinarymissionaries.org. If they just click on the blog, they will actually, be able to see here are stories that we tell. This is an example of what… You’ll be able to go through and say, well, let’s see if he’s telling the truth. How often do they ask for financial support? You’ll probably go through about seven or eight blog posts and you’ll see that they’re laid out, most of them in the form of a story. In the end, you’ll see that, maybe one out of seven times, honestly, I think it’s less than that, that we’ll ask for financial support.

Diana: Thank you so much for sharing all your ideas and your experience. It’s been amazing to learn and I definitely need to go get the book about Ted Talks and learn something there and thank you for, participating.

George: It was my pleasure. Thank you for having me.

I really enjoyed interviewing George. It was such an interesting conversation I think that it’s really interesting with this whole thing he mentions about fundraising being scary. I know it is for a lot of people, but I also loved that he’s then talking about setting a timeline.

So, when inviting people to talk about what you’re fundraising for, set a timeline for yourself that makes you have to push yourself and just face your fears, and get out there. It’s really good advice. Also in episode one where Rodney, talks about writing a personal letter to people. George also says do it in a personal way, contact people in person, instead of doing it via social media. I think that’s a really important thing.

In next week’s interview episode, you will be hearing from Helen and she has been walking Route 66 virtually. That is a really interesting story on how circumstance changed things and you’re just do something else. I look forward to sharing that episode with you.