← We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits
We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits
599. 2025 Social Impact Trends That Matter: Simple Shifts on Repeat. (Adam O'Brien)
00:36:45
Loading summary
Transcript61 lines
- [00:06]
Adam O'Brien
That 1% step is going to change your mission. And it may not be today, may not be tomorrow, but I guarantee you, if you commit to doing the things, the small things first and testing iteratively, getting better. Better is subjective. So, like, don't look at your. Your fellow nonprofit professionals and think, oh, I'm not like them. Like, focus on yourself. Focus on your mission. 1% better every day or even every week. It's going to radically change your.
- [00:32]
Becky
Welcome to We Are for Good Social impact trends that matter in 2025. In partnership with our friends at Idonate, we have hundreds of conversations each year, both on the podcast and offline, with incredible change makers around the world. In this limited series, we're lifting the eight trends that have cut through to us over the past year. These ideas and shifts hold the power to transform your mission from the inside out. And so in these eight episodes, we're breaking down the trends one at a time and inviting a subject matter expert in to take us deeper and to put it into pract. All right, let's get started. Hey, Becky.
- [01:11]
John
Hey, John. So glad we're back in the trend seat.
- [01:15]
Adam O'Brien
I know.
- [01:15]
Becky
And I mean, today's topic is simple shifts on repeat. And I feel like that feels like it needs to be on a T shirt or at least a coffee mug or something like that.
- [01:23]
John
And enunciated very well.
- [01:25]
Becky
Yeah, but I mean, it's just been a motto at we are for good for a while that we call try stuff. Right. So we try to implement that into every aspect of our work here. But to talk a little bit deeper, we wanted to tap an expert, you know, be like, this isn't just our idea. This is ideas that some of the most brilliant marketers are using, too. The man, the Myth, the acronym AOB. Adam O'Brien is with us today. And I mean, I get to love this so much. Adam put his bio in quotation marks. This is his bio. For the past six years, he's been immersed in the nonprofit world, either working directly with them or empowering missions. But today he leads the marketing efforts at over at Idonate. Thank you, friends, for putting together this series with us where the team is just him, but he makes it look like a crew of at least 1 1/2 people. On good days. Adam is an elder millennial. He's a proud data 3. He's a fellow podcast host. Yeah, buddy. He's a sneaker enthusiast, diehard Sacramento Kings fan, and he is a mental health advocate. I'm sure under that jacket is probably a talloha T shirt because he's usually rocking that. One of his favorite charities. But here's the thing. What sets Adam apart is his passion for leveraging tech to make a real impact. And y'all, he is one of the most genuine, kind hearted, cares about people, humans that we have met on our journey. And so I'm so excited. We can talk about optimizing conversion rates and building seamless tech stacks in the company of somebody that's such a dear friend. Adam, get into this house.
- [02:45]
Adam O'Brien
Hey, what's going on? Wow, that was a struggle to write that with AI. I'm not going to lie to you.
- [02:54]
John
Very human. Way to go.
- [02:56]
Adam O'Brien
Yeah, look at me. Yeah, it's weird writing stuff for yourself, but hey, this has been one of the most exciting things to happen in 2024 and 2025 for me is finally to make it onto the We Are for Good podcast. Becky and John, first of all, before we get rolling, let me say how much I value and treasure both of you for what you do for the nonprofit space. There would be so many people that would be in similar, you know, rounds of claps, hugs, kisses and everything in between for the stuff that you do and the resources you provide on a weekly basis. So thank you, both of you, and also for everyone that supports y'all. It means the world to me and I wouldn't be anywhere else but doing this with y'all. And I think Expert is, is maybe generous, but we'll see what we could do over the next period of minutes here.
- [03:42]
John
Well, on behalf of the We Are For Good podcast, sorry it's taken so long to get you in this chair because not only are you such a force for good, but you know, marketing at a different level. In fact, I have pulled some of your quotes into presentations I've made because you just have this Prof. Way that you can say something very succinctly, which is not my jam in such a powerful way. And I think just this notion of small shifts on repeat is, is this the reason I'm connecting with? It is because we understand the power of habits, we understand the power of what building consistency can do, how it's going to innovate and unlock so much. So I just want to get your perspective on this, Adam, because you really helped us shape this trend this year and I thank you so much your just insights and knowledge there. But we talk about pilots, about innovation and trying stuff on this podcast. But why do we need to iterate like why now and what macro things are happening and what data are you Paying attention to that's really going to give lift to this need to iterate.
- [04:53]
Adam O'Brien
Man, that's, that's a lot. Let's see if we can chop this down a lot.
- [04:55]
John
I feel like that was like six questions. Godspeed.
- [04:57]
Adam O'Brien
No, let's chop this down. John and Becky, keep me honest as we kind of go through here. And from the second really, I kind of started to get into the nonprofit space, the tech for good space, even before that, serving as like an associate communications help for a small nonprofit in Florida. One thing that kind of jumped out to me was like, hey, we need to raise all this money and it's nonstop. I know you all have experience, specifically as individual contributors and leaders in the nonprofit space. It never goes away. And it's the same for the business world too, right? There's a lot of similarities, kind of scary similarities between those two. But it quickly came out into my brain of like, hey, if you just do what you've always done, you're not going to hit those goals and that's, that's it, right? So as that starts to formulate, learn more about marketing, digital fundraising and those trying to figure out how to master and become better at those taking this huge leaps and bounds didn't make sense. I couldn't do it. I got really frustrated with myself with the work I was doing. Until you started to understand that it's not about the big swings that make a difference, it's about the iterative changes over time. And really like there's a million different stats, you know, NextAfter does a great job with benchmarks. M and R report. Great job with benchmarks. Right. That's where I draw most of my understanding of a baseline. And then you take what happens if you go 1% more over 6 month period of time. That's 2% compounding over 5, 10 years down the line. That's a lot of difference when you think about donations, new donors, average dollar raise, all that, that metrics that go with it. But like it's really at the end of the day, it's the impact that your mission is able to do that much more because you made the investment internally to make the small changes. Understand? Hey, what if we say something differently here? Let's test that. What if we change the layout of yes. A donation page to do X, Y or Z. Let's test that. Doesn't take more than about four to six weeks to run. Typically a test. Right. And you have some statistical relevance. There we go. But then you learn and you grow and pretty soon you have this completely different way of talking about things, doing things in your nonprofit than you did even six months ago. I look at like to write Love in Arms, as you mentioned. That's one of my favorite nonprofits. And the shift in change they've literally made over the years. When I started following them, which was cheese back in the early 2010s, maybe even before that, with all the post hardcore bands that love to rep and basically support them in their mission as they are new what they are now, they're to me, an ecom powerhouse out of nowhere. The merch is so top tier.
- [07:31]
John
I, I had several of their merch. Like, I love them. And people stop you when you're around to talk to you about what's on your back and your arm and I mean, it's beautiful.
- [07:43]
Adam O'Brien
Yeah, I mean, I have a catch all right here. Perfect perfection scratched out presence is, is highlighted. Right? My shirts, same thing. Becky. Every single time someone stops me and says, hey, I needed to see that on your shirt today. And every single time I stop and think, holy cow, this is the pinnacle of understanding. Not only the mission, how to message it and then how to activate that. That wasn't done with one shot. That was iterative tests over time. So I digress. Like, we can go, we'll go on for minutes and minutes on this one. But ultimately it's the idea and the understanding that, hey, those small victories are compounding. There's one thing you take away from this. It's like, hey, that 1% will grow into 10%, it'll grow into 20%. It grows into something that is life changing for someone and that's really the ultimate driver of all this.
- [08:32]
Becky
I mean, what stands out to me too is that it is time to get in the game. Like, if you're hearing this and you're like, I haven't started, like, there's safety in just understanding. You're gonna not figure it out on the first pass. Like, you just gotta actually publish. Like hit publish, hit send, hit post. Whatever your action is that needs to happen, just get it out in the world. And that's information. And it's not going to be failure. It's going to be an opportunity to learn and iterate and give you your next 1% shift. So I think it's got to start with action, which I love that you're pointing to. I mean, my friend, you're such in the world of like SaaS marketing, which I think is fascinating. If you're not following software as a service, like, follow this Friends, like, if you want to think outside of the realm of nonprofit, I always love studying what other marketers are leaning into and what trends are happening because we're usually behind the curve, but we usually get get there eventually. I mean, what are the macro things happening and the data that you're paying attention to? You dropped some reports there, but what are the other, like, things that stand out to you that you think our listeners should lean into?
- [09:29]
Adam O'Brien
Yeah. Can we, can we start with my hot take and I'm going to ride this all through 2025, is that there should be no reason why we approach as like, hey, nonprofit as a whole. We're behind in tech trends. Like, let's change that. Let's go and say, hey, how do we use GPT or ChatGPT or however you want to call it, the AI overlords. Like, what are some actually usable tools and ways to apply this? Testing is a great example. Right. You don't need fancy tech. You don't need understanding of how to do complex Excel spreadsheet formulas. Like, you don't. The coolest thing about tech now and really the trends in B2B SaaS where we're dealing with and we. Because I live halfway into that world, too, it's what I do. Reduced budgets and reduced resources. Oftentimes, like I'm a team of one. And I make fun of myself a lot for it, if you follow me on LinkedIn. But it's very, very similar to what a lot of nonprofits are dealing with. A restrain on resources. Like that hasn't changed for a long time. And it probably won't change for a long time. Right. But that's okay. It's about understanding who you're, who you're trying to reach. Your core demographic. Or as I say, icp, not Insane Clown Posse, Becky. But you're thinking, for sure, I had to stick it in. This is where we're going.
- [10:53]
Becky
It was on music television that I couldn't watch.
- [10:55]
Adam O'Brien
Yeah, same here. Don't worry.
- [10:57]
John
Television called MTV Music television back.
- [11:01]
Adam O'Brien
Back when MTV played music videos.
- [11:04]
John
Oh, my gosh.
- [11:05]
Adam O'Brien
But ideal customer promo, simply, who are we trying to reach as a business? And that maps over to ideal customer donor or ideal donor. Right. Who is the person that you are reaching who's going to your mission's going to resonate with that has become the north star for any B2B SaaS person. Now, I would argue that's very similar, if not identical to what nonprofits are trying or should be trying to do with their website, their donation Page. You think about this idea of a value proposition or understanding and writing exactly. To what makes your nonprofit unique, what problems you're solving in the world, and then also the impact that donations and support brings. Right. How many times have you gone to a food bank website? Well, I'm using this as an example. Um, but you don't understand. Hey, if I'm donating $50, is that one meal? Is that three meals? Like, what is the actual tangible impact? Those are the. Some of the things that go back into a b testing. Test a donation page without that impact statement. Test it with. Track it in a Google spreadsheet. Like, you don't have to have any extra tools, like literally tracking a Google spreadsheet. And you can see, hey, this actually does make sense when people provide clear, concise understanding and value that translates no matter who you are. Right. That's the type of stuff that everyone in B2B SaaS is doubling down on, in addition to using silly acronyms across the board, but that mirrors directly across to the nonprofit space. So, like, it's really not that far out outside of, like, two different worlds. It's very much closer than what people realize.
- [12:36]
John
It's okay. We've been in the nonprofit world. We know the cruts, we know the CGAs. We all got. We've got the craziest acronyms. I think every business does. But I do think you're making such a solid point about this concept of trying stuff, because it, to us, it is the ultimate long gameplay, which is, again, core value number two of this community. And I also want to give everyone some. A different word or two to think about trying stuff. And these pilots in this testing, it's listening, it's curiosity, it is looking and asking different questions. It's throwing something out there and taking the time to really be present, present with the data, with the human who's giving you feedback. And it will. It can, I think, reorient your messaging, reorient the. The way you show up, where you show up. And so I want to drill a little bit into pilots because I want to get into the practical of how do people do this? Walk us through, like, some pilots that, you know, even just some ideas. If you can just throw some spaghetti at the wall and walk listeners through how they can run some of these, whether they're campaigns or tests, and how they can iterate, whether it's in marketing or fundraising, tech, whatever. Like, the lane is yours, my friend. Take it away.
- [13:57]
Adam O'Brien
All right, so there's this idea and concept of a voice of customer that hangs out in the B2B marketing world. All it says in the simplest form is go talk to your customers and understand the pain points that are being solved with your product. And then take that and make content and make content and message. Yeah, that same applies here. Right. I would argue voice a donor or VOD if we want to coin that. Not video on demand, but voice of donor. Right. All it takes is three to four conversations with different donors to understand exactly the impact that your mission is having or how they came about to supporting your mission that those stories are so critical for a couple reasons. Right. One, it helps you to have more informed tests. You could hypothesize on the tactical for instance on a donation page. My hypothesis, that is if I have a value proposition at the top, if I get rid of all the other fluff, the newsletters call to actions and like and streamline things to just a simple ask, maybe my donation conversion shoots up by 25 to 30%. It's a big jump, right? Or if I remove the navigation header on my donation page, what does that actually do? It's not holding people captive. Like you still have that logo in the top left hand corner that's hyperlinked to your homepage. Don't worry about that. Right. But what does that impact? You know, is it 20, 30, 40% lift in conversions or shoot, look at this. Put a donate donate page or Donate now on your homepage in the top right hand corner with the clear defined color button. Cta, do it. Get it out of your nav. Do it now. I think it's 100 to 100. Almost a 200% jump in conversions if I'm not mistaken, based on next after data like these are actual experiments that have been run by other nonprofits. So just take those Playbooks, go run those, test them and then repeat. Right. But when you get into the copy, when you get into understanding of how content contributes to the journey of a donor or a potential donor, like those stories from actual donors and actual impact mission impact stories is what drives everything. Like people do love to understand how and the transparency around how their donation impacts the mission. Right. That is important. That's becoming much more important as we see things like generational wealth shifts, which is crazy, right? You see events like Giving Tuesday, although they are incredibly successful. Six, $3.6 billion captured. The overall consensus is donors. The number of donors is down. So like what does that tell you people are being choose more choosy about is that can we choose? Yeah, we're going to say that more choosy donors. Yeah, put that on a shirt now. About when and where they support. They're still showing up. Which means that ultimately the reason to test and to continue iterating is because you want to be donor centric. Donor centric being that people are going to, you know, you're not going to tell them or dictate how someone can give. Let's just get that out of the way. It's 2025 at this point. Like let's, let's provide the ways and the avenues and clearly mark those for people to then select and choose how to give. That is what, 2025 and beyond. And that's the role of tech is to be able to support those choices. It's not the hero, it's the supporting. Supporting sidekick along to your, your mission. Right. Does that make sense? Like sometimes I get on one, but like there's this whole idea of like donor centricity. Right. And what are we doing if we're not enabling that? Like we're gonna, we're gonna slowly kind of fade out.
- [17:33]
Becky
Yeah. I mean, and I, I will. I just want to put a caveat that we're not saying that you're orienting your entire mission around this donor and you're wielding to their power. That's not what this conversation is. It's like we, you know, probably everyone listening here grew up or has watched the transition of Amazon coming onto the scene.
- [17:49]
Adam O'Brien
Right.
- [17:49]
Becky
It's like they didn't launch with the type of easy to give situation that is here today. But it's like they keep twisting and iterating. Yeah. It was books that goes to. We're putting buttons in our cabinets and you can push a button and you're going to get restocked to paper towels. Did you all see that whole thing? And it's like they make it simpler and simpler as we go. And it's like there's things that we can learn by watching that those that are meeting the moment are always testing and evolving and then they're shedding the stuff that doesn't work. And it's like just that habit or that mindset that we're not building monolithic things, we're building digital things that are easy to change. Change the color today and see what happens. And it doesn't have to like shift or put bet the whole farm, you know, Like, I think that you're walking us into that. There's so much here at stake that's possible and it kind of makes it fun too.
- [18:32]
John
Can I Can I jump in here? Because I think what John is saying is so insightful. I think what you're leading the audience to is just so mind shifting. Not only are you gonna be able to translate that data, you know, into fundraising or donations or activation, but you're building belonging with that individual. Because the more that you listen and make those adjustments, the more people say, oh, I feel seen. They did listen to what I had to say. I am valued here. And so that's also deepening the relationship by simply listening and pivoting from that data. So I think that there are so many big things that can come from just testing, including growing that movement and growing that sense of community that's already existing within your mission.
- [19:23]
Adam O'Brien
Yeah, to that point, it's. There's this whole idea of two segmentation. And for those of you unfamiliar listening, what segmentation means is simply it's you're grouping people by a common data point or a common theme or insight. Right. Not all donors are built alike. For me, I love merch from to write love in arms. I love supporting and I am supportive of their monthly giving program. Right. But it's not the same as a few other non profits that I support. But there's context. I also am tied to the mission more. I'm probably in a certain age group. I gave it away. I'm a millennial. So my habits and propensities are way different than another set of I guarantee you donors that they've segmented out based on other likes, trends, whatever. Right. There's no shame in that game because it gives contextual information and resources that I find valuable that maybe John or Becky doesn't or my parents wouldn't. And that's a. Okay. But those segments allow you to test and iterate even further, giving very bespoke specific pathways of learning about missions, about learning the impact about how to get involved, how to be in the community that are very, very much fine tuned. And that's also the great output of testing. Right? Is you understand your donors, both new and possibly the future ones, even better, providing that unique experience. I'm not a marketer at all. Am I right?
- [20:51]
John
Oh, come on now.
- [20:53]
Becky
Hey, I want to lift up tech for a second because I'm not saying this because Idonate has been a partner with this in this. I saw how they built their tech around testing and I thought it was breakthrough. I mean, y'all have an AB testing component built into your online donation form. Walk us through what that looks like because I think the putting the power in our Hands as nonprofit to realize these are things that aren't. We have to hire a developer we can actually do in our own shop with just a couple clicks.
- [21:20]
Adam O'Brien
Yeah. I was, I was like, oh, I'm not going to do anything related to product.
- [21:24]
Becky
Sorry.
- [21:24]
Adam O'Brien
I was like, you're throwing that alley oop to me. Yeah.
- [21:28]
John
Take it and dunk it.
- [21:29]
Adam O'Brien
So, yeah. And if you've ever come across me, I'm probably the least pitchy of any tech. And tech is its role is to assist with helping to provide a seamless connection between a potential donor and your mission. Right. Or even existing donor. One of the things, the biggest thing that I love about our platform I donate is what you said. That codeless testing tool, it allows literally a timed it. I did it myself. I could set up a test that ran a variable view on gift arrays. And gift arrays for those who don't know is just simply the amount that you have to select on a donation page, whether it be 5, 10, 15, 20. There is science and there is tests around saying that four options and a free form is higher performing than a six option and a free form. Right. It's just the way it is. Every single test. What our tool allows you to do is to figure that out on your own with literally maybe about 10 to 15 clicks at most. No codes, no additional tools, no additional subscriptions. It's awesome. It's not advanced as some of the other tools, but then again, it doesn't have to be. It's meant to be able to provide any nonprofit quick on ramp to testing. And that goes across colors, buttons, amount of fields, everything you can imagine. It's all within there, which is pretty dope. I'm bipartisan. Obviously I'm here for a reason. But again, you going back to my understanding, like how I view tech, it's meant to be easily accessible for anyone. And this fits the bill for what I want out of tech for nonprofits. And that's selfish to say, but it should be free and easy to use. Right. Not additional additional hoops and hurdles for everyone.
- [23:17]
Becky
Love that.
- [23:18]
John
Yeah. I'm resonating just so much with this. And thank you for doing the Michael Scott version of explain it to us like we're five years old. Because I do think a lot of this, this is new for a lot of people. And I also just want to empower you on the other end. However you are consuming this content, you can do this. I know it feels overwhelming. Anytime any of us in this lifetime try something new, but just do one thing. We call them 1% shifts and it's like, let's try one thing, let's assess and again, let's get curious about it and make a hypothesis around what do we think is actually going to happen. And the more we're humbled, the more it tells us we need to do more listening. So absolutely love that. Adam, do you have a case study that you would be willing to share with us about like maybe someone who's been trying some of this and give us some insight?
- [24:18]
Adam O'Brien
Yeah, I think there's, there's a couple of them that come to mind. One of the first and foremost is. Is Connie Maxwell Choking Jones Ministries. Right. The phenomenal nonprofit that I've gotten to know their team there over the last eight months since I've been in Idonate and really their biggest time of the year, they kind of been using Idonate for a while. Right. And peer to peer specifically around giving Tuesday end of year is like their bread and butter. And they figured out how to do this thing over a handful of years and they iterately keep getting better to the tune of this year they had a goal of $750,000 that they wanted to raise in support of a handful of missions. Specifically they are trying to launch an additional campus in Charleston, which is great for me because it's right down the street. I don't have to drive 5 hours to go say hey to them. Where they're, they're further upstate in South Carolina. They crush it. Right. And in one day. That's just bonkers to me. And it's not that anything crazy about, you know, they were using I donate forms. Yes. But they were able to understand, they clearly articulated what they were trying to achieve, the impact of a donation. And then they also used our tech to go mobilize it to just provide the gateway to easy accessible run. Nothing crazy, nothing advanced. Literally they ran and did their thing. And that's phenomenal output. Right. And the same thing truly can be said across a handful of other organizations that focus on running these. They understand they get better year over year year. And this isn't necessarily even a call of like Becky, we're saying, hey, don't let it be intimidating. I like to think of it as like almost like the little tykes of AB testing. Right. You hop on, it's super easy. It's not intimidating in the least. You don't have to buy extra, spend extra money, doesn't require extra resources like these nonprofits that we work with get it. And they, they hit that on ramp. Granted the on ramp is. Is the driveway to optimization, but that. That hopefully gives an understanding of, like, it really. We've built it around this idea of just not being intimidating and trying to really be focused on providing really modern tools, tech tools that anyone could adopt in that form. And, like, hats off to Connie Mack's team. Jay, Sheila and the team over there. They've just kind of run with it.
- [26:41]
Becky
We can all be Connies out there. This is awesome. I mean, I think it's also bubbling up for me. This is why you want to get in community with folks that don't want to just. Just settle for the status quo. Because it's easy when you're sitting amongst friends. You're like, hey, I'm trying this play. We're tweaking this thing, you know, getting community, because I think it really is part of the scaffolding to actually live this out in your life, you know, whatever you're trying to optimize. Okay, Adam, I mean, we love you for lots of reasons, but you're a softy at heart. I mean, story I know gets you. And we always open up the portal to moments of philanthropy, stories that happened in our life that have stuck with us. Would you take us back to one that's really moved you?
- [27:20]
Adam O'Brien
There's. There's not one single moment of philanthropy, period. Like, this goes back to my brother, who was born with a lot of. A lot of medical issues, right? Hole in the heart, born that. That recklessly healed on itself. But he had a whole bunch of stuff like, so he relied on us. Never could walk, talk fully, so he's in a wheelchair, feeding tube, the whole business. So, like, my life growing up was spent in Shriners hospitals, Right? So shout out to Shriners hospitals and what they do across the nation. You think about Special Olympics, and I have distinct memories of pushing him around the track. Here it comes. Nope, not going to do it. Almost did it. And just the phenomenal support and even. Just the resources. Even back in the 90s before, I would argue that there was really a big support system for special needs children and their families. Right. Little did I know that would impact me so heavily coming down the line. And then, like, you know, my brother passed away, and it's. It's, you know, going through that whole thing of, like, oh, start. Seek to write love in our arms, where there's, you know, understanding of mental health, how important that is. So, like, there's these not single moments, but these missions where they showed up and I had no idea what was going on within the Impact line of my life. And then fast forward to being a dad, a husband, having now kids that I'm making sure, like, hey, the empathy, the consideration for everyone and being inclusive and also being protective of mind space. You know, Becky and John, your parents, you know how critical it is to make sure that we're doing everything we can to give our kids the tools to. To maintain a healthy disposition when it comes to life. Mental health, it's impossible to not sit there at night and be concerned about it. That's where like, these, these missions come into play. Right? This is why I made the jump over from B2B Enterprise Marketing, and that's a mouthful over to tech for good. Like, it's not out of this idea and this understanding of like, oh, yeah, we're going to do X, Y and Z. It's like, no, this is my heart. This is where I've grown up and put roots down into from firsthand experience and the support that I've gotten on the side. Now I want to do everything I can to help nonprofits use tech to continue that and what that looks like in the future and for the future generations. As cheesy as that sounds like, like, that is at my core why I'm sitting here talking to y'all. There's a lot of other micro events that happen, but, like, ultimately, like, those three big, big events pushed me into where we are today. So I digress.
- [29:53]
John
Adam, what's your brother's name?
- [29:56]
Adam O'Brien
Andrew. Yeah. He would have been 38. So it's like we were really, really close in age. And like, it was crazy to go through all of life for 20 years basically supporting, and that was life. That was such a great life. And then to have that removed, I think that's kind of when he passed away. Kind of like part of the whole to write love is like dealing with all of that mental strain, like anxiety, depression, and not knowing how to do that. And some of those missions are just absolutely incredible to help say, hey, it's okay what you're doing, what you're feeling is normal. Here's how to work through that. You matter and for anyone's listening is dealing with that, like, go find someone. I started finally pulling my butt to therapy and making that a priority. That changed my life dramatically. And John, I think when you came into my life and Becky was right, when I was starting to realize that, oh, I can't mess around with this anymore. And like, here we are, like a year and a half later. It's such a dramatic difference. And I have a lot of of people and places and events to thank you to, our chief among them over the last two years or so. So thank you again, man. We're going to bookend this with just high fives to both of you on all fronts of life.
- [31:09]
John
I just what you're saying right now and the way that you are humanizing men, going to therapy men, any of us talking about this, and I just feel in my heart like I just want to thank Andrew for the love that he awakened within you that we get to feel as we're recording this. Adam is like three weeks away from welcoming his third child into the world. And so I do think that those formative experiences that teach us how to love and teach us how to connect are everything. So thank you so much for sharing that story and sharing Andrew with us. You know this podcast well enough to know we're going to ask you a one good thing. So bring it on home for us. Aob with what you got, man.
- [31:57]
Adam O'Brien
So if I am encouraging you as a nonprofit listener, don't be afraid to take that 1% step. That 1% step is going to change your mission. And it may not be today, may not be tomorrow, but I guarantee you, if you commit to doing the things, the small things first and testing iteratively, getting better. Better is subjective. So, like, don't look at your fellow nonprofit professionals and think, oh, I'm not like them. Like, focus on yourself. Focus on your mission. 1% better every day or even every week. It's going to radically change your mission. That is what I am asking y'all to think about and committing to doing. If you need help, I'm here, right? You can find me on LinkedIn. I'm talking craziness all day long. That 1% step is going to change you fundamentally, your mission. It'll make you change you for the better. I promise you. I've never met anyone who hasn't focused on optimization or small shifts and been angrier or not come out a better person. Right? And I think I'm living in sentiment to that. I'm sure y'all have had your steps of 1%. Um, I'm gonna stop because I'm gonna save some of this and brand it and put on a shirt and sell that merch. But I believe in that so much. That's your takeaway. That's your one thing.
- [33:11]
Becky
Dude, that is so good in the power of consistency. Like, crazy things can happen when you just double down and just iterate over time. Okay, you're on LinkedIn. Where else can people find you and.
- [33:22]
John
Connect with you and idonate.
- [33:24]
Adam O'Brien
Yeah, find me@idonate.com Most of the stuff routes right through me. Being a good marketer. Yeah, find me on LinkedIn too. I am all over the craziness. I try to consistently post at least three to five times a week and respond to comments. So if you want to come heckle me, that's the place to do it. Other than that, I think it's kind of like those are the two things. Right now I'm staying out the streets trying to focus on getting ready for that third kid. So feel free to shoot me emails. I'm all in on this idea of chatgpt too. So if you think about like the tactical aspect of how do I start testing? I literally have made a chat or GPT that literally gives you the blueprint. It's interactive. We'll leave it in the notes. It hasn't been released yet. It's all trained on all of this best practice content. So literally you could go and say, give me the eight steps to run an experiment today. It's going to pump it out. It's going to be bespoke to you and your nonprofit, which is even cooler amongst a million other goodies. So three ways ChatGPT find me on LinkedIn or I donate.
- [34:27]
John
So and kudos to people who listen through the end of the episode because you just figured out how you're going to get the freebie for this. So bravo. Thank you for that share. It was very generous and it is not a watered down thing to say how dearly we love you, appreciate you and appreciate what you bring to this world, my friend.
- [34:48]
Adam O'Brien
Thank you Becky. I just want to be like you too when I grow up. That's. That's it.
- [34:52]
John
Well, I am much older than you and I have much to teach you 40 year old man. And I'm working it out too. Thank you for these small shifts. Thank you for the love and the light that you bring in, my friend. Let's go do some 1% shifting in this world, my friends. We are with you. Consistency is going to build the future that you want to live and work in. Let's do it together.
- [35:16]
Becky
Grateful for you, Ben.
- [35:17]
John
All right.
- [35:17]
Adam O'Brien
Thank you too.
- [35:22]
Becky
Thanks for being here, friend. Alongside this series we've created a free 60 minute on demand workshop and we'd love to see you there. Inside you'll get mobilized to put these eight trends from the series into practice at your organization. And of course we would love to have you join us. Head over to weareforgood.com trends2025 can't wait to see you there. Have a great day.
- [35:52]
John
Every week, We Are For Good Podcast listeners, friends and community members reach out to us for both recommendations and introductions to people, products and services to help them take their nonprofit mission further. And you know what? We love it.
- [36:06]
Becky
Totally. This community is fueled by the support of valueign partners who've invested in making this community and content accessible for all. And they just happen to be powered by really good humans too.
- [36:17]
John
So we want to give a shout out to We Are for Goods Partners, Donor Doc, RKD Group and Virtuous and we hope you'll check them out. We deeply believe in their progressive tech tools and offerings that are truly powering a more generous world.
- [36:31]
Becky
So reach out to them directly. And if you do mention We Are For Good sent you, you'll get that red carpet treatment or head over to weareforgood.com refer to learn more here. You can even click the link in today's episode description.