Ep. 042 — How to Raise Money Without Being Pushy with Jeff Vreeland

Hosted by Roddy Galbraith

A Maxwell Leadership Podcast Network production

Weekly highlights from The Speaker’s Edge — a Maxwell Leadership Podcast Network production hosted by Roddy Galbraith. Learn how to communicate with clarity, confidence, and impact — in business, on stage, and in life.

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This Week’s Big Idea

Raising money without being pushy comes down to three things: clarity, conviction, and a specific, purpose-tied ask. When people understand exactly what you’re doing, feel why it matters, and can see where their money/time goes, it lands as an invitation—not pressure.

Key Takeaways

• Clarity first: If they don’t instantly “get it,” they won’t act.

• Conviction makes it stick: Clarity helps them follow; conviction makes it hard to ignore.

• Tie the ask to an outcome: Don’t ask for “$10” — ask for “$10 to feed a dog for a week,” etc.

• Use story to create buy-in: Show the problem, the progress, and how the donor fits into the mission.

• Avoid fake urgency: “End of month deadline” fatigue kills long-term donors.

• Always include a clear invitation: People can’t give unless you ask—directly.

• Tailor to motivation: Some donors respond to impact, others to efficiency or belonging—test and learn.

Quote of the Week

“Clarity makes it easy to follow, but conviction makes it difficult to ignore.”

Resources & Practice

Try this 15-minute “non-pushy ask” drill:

1. Write your mission in one sentence a 12-year-old can understand.

2. Create 3 specific asks tied to outcomes (ex: “$25 = ___”, “$100 = ___”, “2 hours = ___”).

3. Write a 60-second story: problem → person → progress → invitation.

4. Add a simple CTA: “Would you consider giving ___ to help us ___ this week?”

Want to connect with Jeff to up-level your impact? Find him at WorkJeff.com!

Get the companion guide here > MaxwellLeadership.com/TheSpeakersEdge

Full Transcript (Ep. 042 — How to Raise Money Without Being Pushy with Jeff Vreeland)
Released: December 15, 2025

This transcript was auto-generated. It may contain minor errors.

Hey guys, welcome back to the Speaker’s Edge podcast. The podcast dedicated to
helping you to learn from some of the world's very best speakers and communicators so you can learn to master your message and inspire your audience
every single time you speak. I'm your host for this podcast, Roddy Galbraith. Thrilled you've chosen to join us for
this episode. We've got a great episode for you today. We're going to be talking to Jeff Vreeland. Uh, and we're going to be talking about fundraising insights,
how you can raise money for your not forprofit without being too salesy and without being too pushy. Before we get
to that though, uh, don't forget to download the companion resources for the show. Go to MaxwellLeadership.com/thespeaker's
edge. Download the companion guide. And if you if you like the episode, if you like the show, then we'd love it if you
rate and review the show. That would be awesome. All right, let's dive straight into the interview then with Jeff, and then we'll talk about it afterwards.
Thanks for joining us today, Jeff. It's great to have you with us on the show. Yeah, thanks Roddy. Glad to be here.
Tell us a little bit about you and a little bit about what you do and um and your your business and your career and
where you are. Give us come some kind of background. So, I have worked in the political space for about 20 years. Uh and I've been doing
everything from uh digital marketing to political fundraising. Um and that's what I do now. Uh the firm I work for uh
that's what we're doing. And we're helping uh political campaigns. We help businesses uh learn how to fund raise,
learn how to communicate and just, you know, get better at marketing. Okay. So, you spent a long time then,
years and years helping organization raise funds. What would you say um for anyone that
wants to raise funds because a lot of people that listen to the show often they'll ask questions about um raising money for not for profofits. So, they
they they want to make a difference. There's there's something that they're passionate about that they really want to want to help in a certain area. they
want to raise money for that particular charity or not for profofit uh but they don't find it as easy as as they would
like. So I'm thinking that you know with all your experience in political fundraising over the years you would be
able to share with us some of the the the secrets or some of the techniques or some things that make it easier for people to ask so that people are aware
of the good work that they're doing and um and then they're they're they're able to help. Well, I think there's two things that I
say that are really really important. Uh the first one is clarity. Uh in everything that you do and everything
that you teach and that uh John has wrote about clarity is key. Uh because the messaging cannot be difficult to
understand because when it is it just goes right out the window and you have such a small window when you're talking
to an individual doesn't mean it doesn't matter if it's in person, if it's online, if it's an email, if it's a direct mail piece, whichever it is, you
have a very small window. Uh so the clarity piece is is key. It has to be a simple message for them to understand.
And the second part of that is that it has to have some type of conviction because clarity makes it really easy to
follow, but convict your conviction and what you're talking about makes it very difficult to ignore and people can feel
that and they understand that. And so when you have those two pieces together
and whatever your messaging is, whatever you're communicating, uh whatever your your organization is trying to solicit
for money, it has to be simple, has to be easy to understand and it has to have some conviction. Um because if without
that, whatever you're presenting to them, they're going to look right past it. They're not going to buy into it, if
you will. That's that's interesting. So the message needs to be really really clear.
We always say if you confuse them, you lose them. So we don't want to confuse them. We don't want to lose them. We want that clarity. But then we they need
to feel our conviction, the conviction of the the message. Where where is the conviction? The conviction is on.
The conviction comes Yeah, it's a great question. The conviction comes from what you're presenting. So if you're if you're talking about raising funds for
an animal shelter, for example, because I think that's an easy one for people to understand. They need to have that
conviction uh that of of why they're doing it. And that's where story comes in. And that's really an important piece
of it. A lot of people will lean on the idea of urgency u and that hey, you know, it's we got to pressure
individuals into it. And that's really not the key because when you're you're talking about a high pressure situation,
uh to me it's it's a the used carsman situation, not to offend used cars out there because they're great, but
sometimes to me it just feels like I'm being pressured into it and that's not really a process that I enjoy. And so I
talk a lot about when that conviction has to come from the purpose and what you're wanting to do and how you're
wanting uh people to feel about the process. U and they and they have to understand specifically why it matters
that they're giving. And so instead of saying we need your money uh or we need
your time or volunteering or whatever it is, they need to understand why you do. So, in using the same example of a
animal shelter, maybe you're asking them for $10 to buy a bag of dog food, or
maybe you're asking them for a $100 uh to keep the lights on over the night, or maybe it's a very specific ask that
you're needing for a volunteer, right? We have uh a need to help clean the animal uh animals cages, and so we need
you to come in and volunteer for 4 hours. and you're connecting either the money, which most people are, or the
time because, you know, nonprofits have people, they need volunteers as well. But when you're communicating that
specific piece, you want to talk about the purpose. And that really draws in individuals when they understand
specifically where their money or where their time is going to because you don't want to demand something to make people
uncomfortable. Um, and usually most people when they're just asked for money, can I have $10? Uh, it makes them
feel uncomfortable. Uh, so you got to connect that $10 ask to a purpose. That's so good. So we got clarity, the
importance of explaining very clear what it is we're trying to do, the conviction that how important it is to us when
we're when we're communicating this, and then also the purpose of why it's important. My mind, we just had a used
car experience actually. In fact, we've had two or three or four since we've been here in America. We just had a very
good experience this past weekend. But the car we were replacing that we bought 8 years ago was less good because they
were very very pushy. This one was very much we're partners in this and helping us reach the right decision. So I I
agree with you. Poor secondhand car salesman obviously often get bad press, don't they? But there are some some
great examples out there. Correct. Yeah. And there's some really good car salesman out there. And that's not to demean them, but I have I've had more
bad experiences than I've had good experiences. Yeah. Exactly. The other thing that was going through my mind when you were
talking about the the importance of conviction was you may remember Live Aid back in the day and Bob Gildoff.
Yeah, I can remember Bob Gildoff being on TV and you the we had this um show called
Comic Relief in England which is every two years and the celebrities would get together and they'd go out to Africa or
they'd go into the inner cities and they would be in the field taking you to to show you the people that needed help.
They were showing you the need. They were showing you people dying. they were showing you people starving or um dying
first and then they were they were showing the work and they were taking part in digging the wells or laying the pipes or
whatever it was or doing the vaccinations. So it was very clear and easy for us to understand um where the
help was needed and why. But then also they they they let us know how much money it takes to give fresh
water to a child in a village, you know, very clear. And it was like, well, I want to get behind that. I want to how
do I not do that? you know, five. You know what they're doing, Roddy, in that whole thing there is they're telling a story
and they're they're telling you what the problem is. They're giving you the transformation, right, of how you can
solve the problem with an invitation of how to do it with your money, with your time, whatever it is. Um, and they're
showing you the pain point. They're showing you the progress and then showing how you will fit into that entire process.
And that's just a story. That's all it is. And when leaders tell stories, they make listeners feel like a character in
the mission. Uh, and that's what they give. They volunteer in that how they stay involved. And that's what you want in a good fundraising campaign for a
nonprofit is you want to teach people the process. Um, and you don't want to
do it in a bad way or negative way, but you want to tell a story. Um, and that's I mean, you've taught me this. I mean,
that's what that's what communicating is. It's just a bunch of little stories all put together into a presentation.
And in the nonprofit space, as long as you're clear on what that is, you have that conviction and you get into that
storytelling mode, that's exactly what you're doing. That's good. So, we got clarity, conviction, purpose, and now story as
well. Just going quickly back to conviction. What I was saying about Bob Gelof, you could there was no doubt of
his conviction when you watched him on TV. He made himself very unpopular by saying and he would I won't use the
words he used but he would swear on TV saying people are very dying now so give
us your very money we need your money make the donation you know he was very
I've seen that clip many times many times I've seen that clip yes it was important to him so that's good
so um so you talked a little bit about story there like emotion is important then I think what the the TV shows what
the experts are doing is they're not manipulating us but they're letting us know how important is and you said John
says people don't want to you know from a communication perspective John Maxwell says people don't want to sit at your
feet and worship you they want to be a fellow traveler so I think you're saying the same thing they want to be that they want to be taken on the journey they
want to feel like they're a part of something important they want to feel like they're making a difference I guess
that's right that's right and so I in my space specifically as I said earlier the window is very small when you have a
television show or you know a television commercial where you have three to five minutes. Uh if it's if it's a long paid
commercial or infomercial, you can tell a story there. But, you know, a lot of people nowadays are doing it digitally
and they're doing it via email or very v via online advertising and you have a
very small window to do that because there's a lot of noise. There's a lot of competing factors that come into that.
So, you it's very difficult to tell a story on an online advertisement, but you can have someone bought into, right?
And what you're trying to do is get them to move across and move through the funnel. Um, and you're getting them to
communicate with you or to to provide email address for you to to have conversations with them or solicit their phone number or whatever the case may
be. But that is really a big part of it is is telling that story. And you have to have some type of emotional trigger.
Um, and this is where it it does get into the science of it, right? What is going to cause someone to to click on an
advertisement? Is it a picture of a puppy? uh is it a picture of uh uh the
individual or is it a picture of the nonprofit of what they're doing or their outcome as it is right and that is
really an important thing to to talk about and really to test um because in
the world of digital I mean you can run three or four of these advertisements with five or$10 dollars behind them and
really get to a good solid message that's working for people before you put more time energy effort and money behind
it. Uh but that emotional trigger is really key because if you just ask somebody for $10, they're not going to
it's very unlikely, I should say, that they're going to be a part of that. Uh they're going to buy into it and they're definitely not going to be a long-term
partner with you. And in any nonprofit, that is the key. It's not the one-time donation. It is the person who's been
giving for 12 months or 24 months or or three years or 10 years, right? You're developing that long-term partnership.
Uh because that's really what you want. You want a long, strong lifetime value.
I've heard people say, and I think you're just kind of hinting around this. This maybe this is what was going through my mind anyway as I'm listening
to you. Um, people talk about people don't give to concepts, they give to
human beings, they give to individuals. So like hunger in Africa is a concept, but a little girl that we can meet and
be introduced to who we can see obviously is malnourished is very emotional. Is that one of the ways that
people get get you behind the u not that you could I think people are going to think well you could use that to
manipulate people. Well you could but you could al you could also use it to show people how desperately needed your
help is. You know it can be used absolutely and you know I tell you uh are you familiar with cam compassion
international? Um they are a organization where you can sponsor a child all over the world. They are in
multiple countries. Uh but that's exactly what they do. You're supporting a child in need. That's the concept. But
what they do is they actually give you a picture. They give you a biography of the individual and then you correspond
with them. You write letters to that individual back and forth and you're creating a relationship. Uh and my wife
and I uh we sponsor a child and it's great, right? And ours child is a little bit older. Uh I think she just turned
18. Her name is actually Jenny, the same as my wife's name. uh spelled a little differently, but it's a long-term
relationship where they we're we're we're giving to the individual. Yeah, we're supporting the overall mission,
but we have a one-to-one relationship. So, our $40 a month or $43 a month as it
is now, u is is is going directly to that individual. And so, it goes into
that concept you just said. You're giving to the individual, not necessarily to the concept because that's what creates the long-term
relationship. Yeah. And it feels like you're making a difference then, doesn't it? you feel like you're doing something useful.
Whereas if you if somebody was to give $1,000 to the national debt, you don't feel like you've made, you know,
dropped a penny, a penny, that's all you've done. Uh and and that is it's very it's very difficult to do,
right? That's good. So, one of the things that you said I just want to go back to to make sure I understand it. You talked about the importance of
urgency. There's a limited window. Is that true where every time anyone speaks or it's specific to political
fundraising where No, I think No, not at all. I think a lot of people want to create urgency
because most nonprofits struggle with budgets. Uh in the political space, it's it's usually, you know, running on
probably a two-year window, 18-month window. Sometimes it's smaller. Uh so campaigns don't usually last that long.
So there's always some urgency. Um but in most nonprofits, there is some type
of urgency that is needed. uh because their budgets are just they have shortfalls in their budgets just like
businesses do. Uh but you know getting a loan or you know other sources of income
can be very difficult. So they create they want to go to that urgency. Um and you know political people do it as well.
Political campaigns do that as well and they want that sense of urgency and all that does is just turn off the donor. Uh
at the end of the day it may work. You may get a small response, but you can't
go back to that well over and over. If every month you tell me it's the end of the month and we have a deadline on the
on March 31st or November 30th as it is, and I need, you know, $100. Well, after
doing that 12 times or two times, it just doesn't work anymore. And so, that's not a long-term relationship. So,
it goes back to uh developing the purpose, right? and getting them buying in to specifically what you're doing and
creating a long-term relationship. And long-term can mean multiple things and you can have multiple campaigns. This is
very very multifaceted in the way in which you develop this. But understanding what that donor journey
is, it's no different than a customer journey in a sales process. The donor journey is the same thing and thinking
how that's going to work. Because again, going back to the emotional trigger that I talked about, you may get someone to
donate on one emotional trigger over the course of four or five months, and then you have another emotional trigger
that's going to get another four or five months, and now all of a sudden you got an 8 to 10 month donor uh just off
multiple different emotional triggers. Wow. And so I think I'm in my mind I'm
thinking that the story that you tell is a great way for you to to do a lot of
these things to to let them know that they don't know I guess unless you tell them unless you put it in their
mind unless you frame it in for them to consider they don't know about the good
work the charity is doing and they don't know who is helped and they don't know how big the problem is and they don't
know that actually this is a safe uh charity to give money to or this is
there's a lot of information that probably is at the very minimum is going to make it easier to give that you could
provide to them in the form of a story I guess. That's right. And that's where social media comes in and social media can be
very impactful from that perspective because you have uh networks or mediums to really tell your story. Um and you
can tell your story as far back as you want and again it goes to the emotional triggers. Um and I you know I you I keep
using that language as a as a fundraiser. That's what it is. But at the end of the day, it's just a story you're telling. Uh it could be a
campaign. Um it could be, you know, if you're going back to to drilling wells. U it could be the process of doing that.
Okay, the the the wells are being dug or we're putting in the equipment or we're
testing the equipment. You can have all of those checkpoints that create a journey that you're getting individuals
to buy into. Um, and one of the things I always hear I always hear this in
fundraising. Um, and it's very specific in politics, but it's it goes across the the mediums is I don't know what my
story is. And you know, if I've learned anything from Roddy Galbraithbreth, it is that there's stories everywhere. You just
have to write them down and talk about the things that are coming through. John teaches this so well. Uh, is that
there's stories everywhere. You just have to you have to document them. You have to really produce them. uh and you
have to practice them and then you just get them out. And once you do that, there's stories everywhere for you to be able to take the donor on a journey uh
through the process. You ju it's all right in front of you. You just got to see it and execute upon it. That's so good. It's so true, isn't it?
There are stories everywhere. Uh and there the one great question to ask yourself before you teach anything, if
you're I'm not talking about fundraising now, but you're going to share something. A great a great message uh a
great question to ask yourself is where did I learn this? If you're going to share a point, where did I learn this?
That's a great story. So, your kind of origin story with this piece of information that you're going to share, this is how I learned it and the
difference it's made to me and while I'm why I'm telling you the story. So, that hopefully it's going to make a difference to you. That kind of origin
story for that aha, if you like, is is a great way to communicate that. Well, in the same way as I'm listening to you,
I'm thinking it sounds like it's a lot like that with with the charity. If if a charity means a lot to you, that's going
to help your your cause to let the audience know how important this is to you, where why it's important to you,
how you discovered this and what you're doing and how much you're giving to the charity and and your work with it. It's
going to be very convincing, isn't it? It is. And it goes back to John's I mean the laws 16 laws of uh communication
that John wrote and it's the law three of conviction, right? And I think it's law three. Um but that law of conviction
is real. Um, and people could see that and a lot of people who are participating in nonprofits, it's not a
full-time job for them. They're doing it in their free time. And so that is real and you're talking about that and
showcasing that uh in the messaging and through the process, through the storytelling. Um, all of that is real
and and can be very impactful for individuals as well. Yeah. I love the way you say that it's
not just about connecting the audience's mind to the to the challenge or to the
mission. It's their hearts as well, isn't it? Really trying to enroll their hearts with with stories. Good stories.
It is. It is. Absolutely. We've got a number of different uh principles here. I'm writing down as we
go through this. There's the importance of clarity. There's the importance of the conviction, understanding the purpose, uh the story that makes that
emotional connection. We've got the urgency. Um what about taking action?
How do we get people actually to put their hand in their pocket and give money to um to a worthy cause? Yeah, I
get this this question is always it comes about uh and the the answer to it is very simple. You people can't give
you money unless you ask them. Um and the goal of what you're doing in fundraising is that you have to ask for
money. Um and you know it is the age-old question uh that no one likes to do and
it's everyone's uncomfortable but it's just practicing uh and it is it's doing it if you're doing it in person, if
you're doing it online, it's a little bit easier, but there has to be a call to action. Um, and that call to action,
your goal may not be $10 that day. It may just be collecting their email address or their phone number. Or the
call to action may be getting them to share your message with their network. Um,
all of those things require you to invite them. Um, because all of the work
that you're doing, you're hoping to inspire them, right? That's what the storytelling process is. But you have to
invite them at the end. And that is the key to turning really turning belief into action. Uh is inviting them to do
something. Uh if it's giving money uh if it's like I said signing up or just sharing your message, there has to be
that invitation at the end of the process. So you really are like a wealth of information on this topic. How long have
you been doing this, Jeff? How long has it taken you to to to to to learn all this stuff to to pick up all of this great
information? I've I've been working in on the digital side uh for almost 20 years. U just just
shy of 20 years. And it's changed uh all the mediums have changed the the way in
which we've done it has changed but nothing at the core of what you do has changed because you have to tell a
story. I've been a part of a lot of very unsuccessful fundraising campaigns
because we didn't tell a story. Uh we we used urgency. We used the it's the end
of the month. I need you to give us $10. Um, and we did. We had some mild success
at the beginning, which again, when you taste that fruit, you're bought into it. You're like, I'm gonna go back to that.
And it doesn't work long term. It is a very short-term process. And I think a lot of the effect today that nonprofit
fundraisers are feeling both digitally and non-digitally, is that they have been doing that and others have been
doing that for a 10 years or 15 years, and now we're starting to feel the
residual effects of that. It does not work anymore. there is not the short-term high because oh I have a new
set of donors. Well, those donors probably have heard that same message from 15 other people because it's the
end of the month. Um and within politics we always joke about the end of the quarter and it's a hallmark holiday for
us. We created it. Uh it's the end of the quarter. It's when the the reporting deadlines are due. So we've artificially
created a deadline where we need to to solicit more money from you. And it does sometimes have an effect. Most of the
time it doesn't. But if you have a long journey with the individual, you've been telling them the story, it has some buy
in. Uh, and that's really at the end of the day, all the mediums have changed, the processes have changed, online advertising has changed, email, text
messaging, all of that is brand new. But we're telling a story at the end of the day. And if you have a long-term high
lifetime value donor, uh, they've been part of the journey. They've been part of the story for a long, long time.
That's so good. Everything changes, but nothing changes. You're telling a story and asking for money. telling a story.
Well, it's like John, right? I mean, people all the time talk about John's uh laminated note cards. Yeah. And where
are the laminated note cards? Well, they've moved to the iPad. It's easier to hold a thousand laminated note cards
in the iPad, but the the story principle is still the same. Yeah. Yeah. That's good. Uh how important is
um is like tailoring your message to your particular audience? I'm imagining
that, you know, any communication that's going to be important and fundraising is no different. Absolutely. Um and every
audience listens through their own lens of motivation. Um some care about impact, some about efficiency, others
about just belonging to a sense of uh a community really. Um so the the key is
listening and understanding first and then speaking second. Uh you have to know what your audience values before
you can communicate value. It's just you have to understand that. Um when you tailor your words to their why, people
feel seen. uh they understand what's going on and that creates trust and connection. So you have to get this
sense of understanding of who you're talking to. Um and that could be the demographic data that you're looking at.
It could be uh the type of donor profile. Most nonprofits have built some
type of a persona of what they're going after and who they're looking for. And whatever that persona looks like,
there's troves of data online to help you communicate to that specific type of uh individual. But you you need to talk
to those individuals with very specific language and understand it. And sometimes that takes testing, right? If
you're all about impact and you talk to them about how efficient your nonprofit is, it's not going to work. Okay? So
flag that. Understand that that individual doesn't respond to it. Um, and then you can talk to them about
impact. Um, and that messaging will trigger and that may get a donation. And that's where you talk about those stories, right? And that's where I going
back to what I said previously is that storytelling process. You're going to get an emotional trigger that's going to
last four to six months. And you have to test what those emotional triggers are. Uh, and that's again understanding the
specific messaging you're talking to or excuse me, the specific message you're talking about to the the audience and
the audience members. I'm glad you said that because you've been phenomenally successful over the years. You've raised
what? Half a billion dollars or something. Our firm our firm uh for our on behalf of our clients. Yeah. Just just
approaching half a billion dollars. Yep. That's a lot of money. And so to to reach that kind of success, I was going
to ask you about the systems that you must have because it's like any other business, I'm sure, in you know, there's
processes and procedures and followup and you know, not cutting corners and remembering to do the little things that
make a big difference over time. And can you talk a little bit about that? The political process, uh, the campaigns
usually don't last very long. Most campaigns are 18 to 24 months. Uh,
sometimes a lot less. And so, you don't have a lot of ability to build a process or or build a long-term relationship
unless the campaign uh, it becomes, you know, individuals elected and they stay in office for a while. But what we have
found is we use a lot of the same principles that work in business. We're high touch point. We're authentic in our
messaging. We have conviction in our messaging. And we use technology to help
us propel that so that we can understand what may work for Roddy, what may work
for Jeff, and then we can build that individual's profile. Um, and any nonprofit can do this. It doesn't take
a, you know, a large budget to do it, but any tool out there can help you identify the audience members. Um, and
most nonprofits also share data, right? You can talk to other people in the
nonprofit uh space, either through networking or local events or just, you know, cold outreach on LinkedIn and see
what's working for them. Um, it is a tight-knit community. It's very much like the John Maxwell network of
leadership team members. Like, it's a tight network of people who are wanting to help others uh be successful. And
when you build that and understand what that is, you can have long-term success, which is what has allowed us to have
long-term success is we understand what it means to talk to individuals, how to
talk to them, where to talk to them, uh what works, what doesn't work. And we've been doing this for over 20 years and um
helping political campaigns and businesses reach individuals at this level. We're just we understand what works and what doesn't work. Uh and
that's been very very successful for us. So just like anything else, you can get better and better at it wherever you're
starting. If you if you keep if you keep trying, you get better and better and then you become more and more successful. Absolutely. Absolutely.
Uh so if somebody wants to start communicating their mission with more passion then Jeff and more impact, what's one thing they can start doing
right away that's going to make a difference for them? Before you speak, ask yourself, do I believe this deeply
enough that it would change my own behavior? Right? If you're a nonprofit fundraiser, what is going to change your
feelings? What's going to change the feelings of the individuals around here? If that answer is yes, others will feel
it too because passion is contagious. But only when that passion is real. People don't follow polished
communicators. They follow authentic ones. And that is this one of the biggest things I've learned from John Maxwell is that individuals
love communicators, but they love authentic communicators. What does John always say when he gets on stage? Hey,
I'm John. I'm your friend. Right? That authenticity comes through immediately. And there's no difference in that and a
nonprofit fundraiser um communicating some type of passion and conviction.
That's absolute gold. Well done. Thank you so much for sharing, Jeff. This has been uh this has been amazing and really
really helpful for people listening to the show. So, thank you so much. You're welcome. Glad to be here. All right. Um so, just to finish off
then Jeff um I know you're a Maxwell leadership certified team member. just tell us a little bit about your
experience because I talk about the Maxwell leadership certified team every week on the show telling people how great it is. But from your experience,
when did you join and how have you found it? Uh it's only been a few short months, but it has been impactful in my
life both personally and professionally. Um I've learned so much from you and the other staff uh just how to be a better
communicator. Um and it's it's been tremendous. I've spent lots of money on
personal development. Uh, and this is a fraction of what I've spent just with the cost of the John Maxwell Team u, and
what I've gotten out of it. But that is second to the community. The individuals really build you up. They're there to
help you. They're there to answer questions. Uh, they're there to help you keep accountable. U, and I've really met
some great friends through the process. Um, and I have met people who are pushing me and I'm cheering them on and
I'm watching what they're doing. Uh, because at the end of the day, it comes down to the people. Um, and the the
curriculum is great. Uh, it's worldclass for sure, but the community of people is really what makes it. And I know we're
close to 60,000 or uh maybe over 60,000 members across the world now. Uh, and I'm glad to be one of those 60,000
people because it truly is impactful. Uh, I I represent the Maxwell DNA and I love that and everybody that's a part of
the process. Um, and it really makes it valuable to me to say I'm a part of the John Maxwell Team.
Wow. Yeah, I'm very proud to be a member, too. Thanks, Jeff. Just to finish off then, if somebody wants to reach out to you and find out a little
bit more about what you do and how maybe you could help them, where can they go to find out more about Jeff? Yeah, the best place is WorkJeff.com.
Very simple URL. Um, it allows you to schedule a meeting. You can learn about my uh businesses and then also subscribe
to the newsletter. Fantastic. One more time, WorkJeff.com. That's correct. WorkJeff.com.
That's very easy to remember. Very easy. That's why I got the URL for us. Yes, sir.
Thanks, Jeff. See you soon. Take care. God bless. Oh, that was so good, wasn't it? So much great stuff in there. Worth
listening to again and again if you've got a not for-p profofit that you're looking to raise money for. I love what he said at the beginning about the
importance of clarity with your message and conviction to the message as well. The simpler your message is, the easier
it is for them to understand. And the more they see how committed you are to the message, your conviction in the
message, the more you believe what you're saying, then the more likely they are to buy into it themselves. And he
also talked about the importance of emotional triggers, the need to make it very personal to your audience. But
probably my favorite bit was when he talked about the importance of communication and storytelling in fundraising. So so much great stuff in
there. Thanks very much, Jeff, for joining us. Now, if you're interested in developing your speaking, I always say that you should check out the Maxwell
Leadership Certified Team. We've been at this for many, many years now. There's nearly 60,000 coaches around the world.
It's packed with great stuff, but just for speaking. There's so much more to it than that. But if you're interested in developing your speaking, check it out.
I've been working with John Maxwell on the Maxwell method of speaking since 2010. And I think it's the best system
of speaking anywhere in the world. Jump on a call with a program advisor. Find out about the program. You got nothing
to lose. There's no obligation. Just go to MaxwellLeadership.com/speak. And even if it's not for you, that's
okay. Like I said, it's no obligation. All it's cost you is a few moments of your time. All right, that's it for this
week. Don't forget to download our companion resources. Go to MaxwellLeadership.com/thespeaker's
edge. And remember, communication is a learnable skill. It's one of the most important skills you can develop. And
the good news is you can develop it because it is a learnable skill. So keep going, keep learning, learn to master
your message and inspire your audience every single time you speak. I'll see
you again soon in the next episode. Thanks for listening today. Lots of love. Take care. Bye-bye. God bless.