Creating an Impact in Your Community- a consideration for any business owner

Today I am joined by Kelly Fox for a conversation about work and volunteerism in the non-profit sector. Kelly's journey is powerful and I want to share it with you, with the hope that you will be inspired to explore your opportunities. One of the most powerful takeaways is the impact that Kelly's non-profit work has had on her for-profit business.

Kelly Fox came to the financial services industry by way of retail buying and customer service. setting. Early on she sought answers to questions of financial viability but could find no one to help her out. She was fortunate enough to come across a mentor who saw her potential as a financial advisor and professional and she proceeded to progress to where she is today as a self-employed Financial Advisor. 

Kelly, however, had further aspirations to serve the non-profit sector. Her efforts helped grow the local Council for Children from 12 to 150 volunteers. The extent of her efforts has had a profound impact on local children, their families, and the community at large. Kelly’s uncanny ability to successfully serve in both roles is simply amazing. I am thrilled to call Kelly Fox a friend and I am humbled by her unending commitment, passion, and humility.  

Transcript

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Welcome to The Water Trough, where we can't make you drink, but we will make you think. My name is Ed Drawster, the Small Business Doctor, and I'm really excited you chose to join me here as we discuss topics that are important for small business folks just like you. If you're looking for ideas, inspiration, and possibility, you've come to the right place. Join us as we take steps to help you create the healthy business that you've always wanted. Welcome back to the water trough. This is Ed draws to the small business doctor. And today I'm joined by my guest Kelly Fox. And let me start by saying I've known Kelly for quite a number of years. And this is a gal that I consider not only a good friend, but she is somebody that I admire. Immensely. And Kelly, I know before you start to laugh back there, I get to speak first. So sit tight. Anyway, Kelly, is a financial advisor, but she came to the financial services industry by way of retail buying and customer service. And early on, when she is seeking answers to questions of her own financial viability, she couldn't find anybody to help her out. But she was fortunate enough to come across a mentor who saw her potential as a financial advisor and professional, and she proceeded to progress to where she is today as a self employed financial advisor. Even more interesting to me is how Kelly has furthered her aspirations to serve the nonprofit sector. She has helped to grow the local council for children from 12 to 150 volunteers. Her efforts have had a profound impact upon local children, their families, and not to mention the community at large. She has an uncanny ability to successfully serve in both roles, the financial services and the non profit, and I think it's quite amazing. I'm humbled by what she does, by her unending commitment, her passion, and humility. It's my pleasure to introduce Kelly Fox. Hi, Kelly. Hi, Ed. Thank you so much. That was amazing. Wonderful. Thank you very much. Now don't tell anybody I'm waiting for the check in the mail for that. Yeah. Kelly, these are true words. I could not make these up. I have nothing but the utmost respect for you. I believe that your passion and commitment. Is above beyond that of virtually anybody else. I know. And I really do admire it. And that's what I'd like to talk about today. You're a self employed financial advisor. And you've done these incredible things for the nonprofit world. Just tell us a bit more about your story. Well, as I was starting out in my financial advisor role, it's quiet, right? When you're first building a business, you're trying to meet people and, you want to get to know the community, try to. Define yourself, but I also grew up in a family where service was very important. And so, I happened to read in the newspaper about this great, little organization and they wanted to do something called bears on board. And they wanted to put gather teddy bears and put them on emergency vehicles. And this really resonated with me because my father was a police officer. So, when I talked to him about putting a teddy bear and a cruiser or on, an emergency vehicle, or ambulance. He was excited about it as well. So that is what brought me to the council for children. And from there, I realized it's a small organization. So it gave me an opportunity to have a little bit of an impact because it's not very many people. But as I was building my practice, I was also helping to build the organization. The council for children itself. There's a lot of parallels to building my business and working within the nonprofit. And because I wanted to get to know the community, I, spoke with the mayor and I asked her, what other organizations should I know? Is there somewhere else I should be, using what talents I'm trying to learn, but also I have good organizational skills and just still learning myself, you know, what I could do for an organization as I'm learning how to build my business. She was great. And she gave me the name and, phone number of the executive directors of a half a dozen local organizations. And so I just started making phone calls and the people who said that they would talk to me. It was great to be able to say the mayor said I needed to call you. I got an opportunity to sit on a couple of boards. I started to learn how a nonprofit that's more organized, that's a little more mature actually was organized and I could take that and bring it back to the Council for Children and try to help get that organization. Grow and mature and look more like the small business that it really is because nonprofits are corporations, right? They're public corp charities. So they need a board and how does it function and how is it supposed to grow and what's its mission? And Doing strategic planning. Again, there's a parallel as I'm doing my own strategic planning for my business. I'm also doing strategic planning for the organization. So we really all grew up together, but being a business owner with employees is decidedly different being a nonprofit. Executive director or president and having volunteers. So you have to really walk that line very differently. I think for me, I loved being able to bring my family to go do something good in the community. Our son was in kindergarten when we started volunteering, so he really doesn't remember life without. Doing something in the community that would benefit the community that he grew up in and understanding that, 1 child with 2 working parents has a very different life than a family with maybe 1 parent for whatever reason, and multiple children and. Being able to teach my child empathy and commitment and also the organization, like working as a team. We voted him onto the board at 13 years old. So he understood early on how. This process works and now at 30, almost 6. I think that that's served him very well. He still comes back and volunteers every year. But now that he works in a corporation, he has had years of experience of working collaboratively, bringing different organizations together like I was so happy to be able to do with the Council for Children. the people that I met because of the mayor's introduction, I was able to go back to especially specifically with Christmases for kids and say, you know, we met and spoke a month ago, a year ago, whatever. And I know that You've got children in your organization that are underserved, underprivileged, in stressor situations, in shelters. Can we take those children off of your plate when it comes to Christmas gifts? And you guys do the work of finding shelter and health care for them. Let us bring Backpacks to them at back to school, Christmas gifts at Christmas, music lessons, if that would be helpful in their therapy, like what can we do to support other organizations? And I think that collaboration is what has made the organization stronger because People love the idea we're not in competition and we're absolutely working not in silos, but across, bands as well. I'm jumping like 30 years from when I first found bears on board to now that we've got, 1000 kids will help at Christmas and hundreds of backpacks that will give away. And a food drive and all of these other things, but the food drive that Council for Children does benefits three other nonprofits, not us. But it's all the same kids that are helped. And I think that's become very important to knit all of that together. And, I like to think that the council's very much been the leader in doing that as opposed to looking at each other, competing for grants or competing for whatever, but to look collaboratively and then going forward as we look at the building that we want to build. It is specifically to bring several nonprofits under 1 roof. So that little. Spark of an idea 30 years ago will be a multi million dollar building. Hopefully soon that will really benefit the community. And in the meantime, I've grown my business over the last 30 years. How in the name of heaven do you do it? I'm sure that passion, inspires you and helps push you along. But beyond that, how do you do it? 1 of the things that, I remember a coach saying to me early on when I was at an executive event, kind of an outward bound thing. And this is stuck with me forever. Is that I may need to do it myself, but I don't have to do it alone. And I think that that's the key is that I. Okay. I love kind of pushing along the ideas, but it's 150 volunteers that make Christmases for kids work. I may be the one standing in front of the cable camera or writing the letter to the editor, but it's 150 people that walk in the door to make sure these thousand kids get gifts. It's not just me. I think it's really important that. In the nonprofit sector in particular, that the board doesn't forget that nothing happens without the volunteers, just like my, CEO at my company before coming to this job used to remind us that if the cashier doesn't show up, nothing happens. So the important people aren't the ones sitting behind the desk, the important people are the ones who show up every day to do the work. I think that in a lot of ways it keeps you very humble, but it would be a huge mistake for me to ever think that I did this by myself. I certainly think that you could not do it by yourself. I think that's fair to say, but on the other hand. I would have to say that it is your ability to to inspire the likes of 150 volunteers, volunteers to show up in the first place, to do this, that's charismatic leadership. In my opinion, thank you. You know, I think that, you lead from the front. Sometimes you lead from the back. Sometimes right. I think we probably have had that kind of conversation and 1 of our many roundtables. So, being the 1 to stand up and go, this is so much fun. If you come and join me, you are going to meet new friends. You're going to have a great time. You're going to feel good about what you're doing. And that's kind of the definition of volunteering for me. Those are the 3 things that I want to do. I want to feel great that I'm giving my time. Because I can't get that time back. Right. So I'm giving that time to something for kids. I'll never meet for something that really is important and with a good group of people make new friends. And that will work. Well, and then I get to step back and watch these folks create magic. And magic it is, I'm sure, for these children, their families, and again, the community as well, as, you know, all communities are comprised of the individuals and the individual families, so it can't be seen as only a very small group. it's the entire community that benefits from this. It really is. And thinking about the interconnectedness. now that I know I've got this fantastic group of volunteers, it allows me time again as a leader, To step back and go, okay, what's next? The stuff that needs to get done day to day is being done really well. Now I can look ahead, look up. not worry about the day to day. you know, are there paper towels? What's going on? it's the stuff that allows me to think about, oh, let's write a grant for a multimillion dollar building. what are we going to do next? How can we sustain this organization? That's the next most important thing, and it allows me to work with other, to network with other leaders of organizations around, around the six towns that we, work with, so it's not just one town, it's, elected officials, it's, town nurses, that You can pick up the phone and talk to the superintendent and the assistant superintendent and know that they'll take your call because you've done the work over all these years to say that this organization is doing the things that they're supposed to do. And that's a big piece of it too, is that keeping the vision. So focused on what's our mission. Are we staying in our lane? and if we've got a great idea, how do we collaborate with somebody else? That's their lane. So we help them and not take credit for it. There's a lot of things that the council for children does that, we do anonymously because we know we're doing it. A couple of other people know we're doing it, but the impact is what's most important. The impact is important and it's important in order to maintain a program such as this, it's necessary for people to appreciate the value, to appreciate the impact, not just those that are benefiting, but those around who They're not impacted directly, yes? Right, there is just, some education that goes along with this too, you know, just kind of get to make it up as you go along. When I was working on my MBA, I specifically took classes in nonprofit management so that I would get that classroom polishing that. And information that you just can't get from experience. so to me, that was also important that I, love doing volunteer work, but you can't make it up as you go along I needed. Some very specific classroom experience and learning so that I could then bring that information back to the organization and hopefully make it continue to grow and, be healthy and, do the things that as a public charity, it's supposed to do. Right. That structure is necessary in any industry, any for profit, nonprofit. There has to be some kind of guidelines and boundaries to work with them. I can certainly appreciate your desire to go there. Let's shift gears a little bit here. If you don't mind, I love this background information. How has the non profit experience aided you? In the for profit world I think specifically in my business as a financial advisor, you have to really listen to what someone's goals or issues are I rarely get somebody on their best day. something's either happening or about to happen. And that's why they would come in to talk to me. And I found that in the, nonprofit world. It's the same thing. I rarely get someone on their best day, but I've learned. Empathy, maybe in a deeper level through the nonprofit, and that brings me back as a financial advisor, trying to really understand what's happening with a family essentially the question that I always asked in the nonprofit world I've brought into my business, and it's become the 1st question that I now ask all of my clients and it's how can I help. Okay. I know that you're very passionate about the nonprofit, the servitude, if you will. And I think that's fantastic. And I imagine you have the same philosophy with your clients in your business as well. Would you say that you're better at the business than you would have been without this experience? Absolutely. No question. Okay, no question. I think that I've had to become extremely organized in order to be able to balance the 2. Um, we had mentioned time earlier, so I tell people that I really try to be surgical with my time because I want to get all this stuff done. I love doing all of it. So in order to do it all, I have to really think through, occasionally I have to say no to things. You know, because I have work I need to get done, or I've got to get to a board meeting, or I have something that needs to be done for the nonprofit. It makes me prioritize very clearly what I can and cannot do if I want to, be able to manage these 2 lives. Right, right. there's a lot of people out there who probably could not envision themselves in the nonprofit sector. At least not at the level that you are being the president, for example, in this case of the council for children, even volunteering for some people might seem a little bit far fetched. They get so caught up in their day to day, that they don't appreciate the value of volunteering. It may be something that comes later in life when they retire and things like that. For example, what kind of thing would you say to people like that? it's interesting because. Just a couple of days ago, I was listening to, an interview, and they were talking about the importance of play. And that as adults, we forget the importance of play. We get so busy with our lives, with whatever it is we're doing. so somebody who would like to do some volunteering or just step into it, I would encourage them to think about what brings them joy, passion. What would. Bring the hair up in the back of their arms when they were thinking about, is it being with children? Is it the environment? Is it animals? Is it gardening? what is it that if you could do whatever you wanted to do, what would you look forward to doing? What would be fun for you? go find that in your community. go give your time to that. Hmm. I think that's a really great way to look at it. And, you've told us that the impact of this nonprofit work, volunteering or at a higher level or more, expansive level is really beneficial to you in your business operations as well. I think that's, An important thing for people to realize that, they can find a way to get out of that heavy duty rat race that they're in. And as you say, play, find the joy, but they can bring that joy back to that place where there's greater stress than there would be, in the play world for them. I think that depending on the profession, people, the general community might be a little bit, jaded about my profession, quite honestly. So. Having people have an opportunity to get to know me, not in my office, but outside the office and see that I can manage this, that I hopefully don't get terribly flustered, when things. Don't go as planned. We just shift gears, that, when there's 100 people around me all saying, Kelly, what do you want me to do next? okay, let's all take a breath. Let's figure it out. You go over here. You go over there. Who needs help? Who's a veteran? Who's new? How do we put this together? Go? I think that, when folks can see me through that lens, They are more comfortable walking into my office because they know that if I can juggle, working all day and then spending another 4 or 5 hours, 5 nights a week and all day Saturday from November and December, to make sure that all these kids are taken care of getting all of the stuff in. And then in 4 days, getting 1000 bags out the door. And still be smiling and still hugging people when they come in and still being happy to see them and hopefully them happy to see me when something happens and they need the type of help that my job would give them that maybe they would think to come and work with me, but I think it's also important that anybody. Listening understand that this is organic. It was not, gee, I'm going to go do this. So that I get business. It was I love doing this and oh, my goodness. I got some business from it. It was not intentional. It's the law of attraction model. We're attracted to those that have, qualities, elements, and characteristics that we admire. And as you say, this is not the purpose of these things that you do, but it is a affect that it has on people and effect of the process. I totally hear you. You know, we're going to. Start wrapping up here. So, what would you like to leave us with in parting here? more than anything. Thank you for inviting me on. This was so much fun. I love being able to spend time with you under any circumstances. So this was particularly wonderful. But I think also for anybody who's thinking about. Giving their time to their community. I think just go do it. Go find something. You will love it. It will bring you joy long past retirement. And knowing that if we can't take anything with us, if there's anything I've learned in my business that we do all this great planning and when it's all said and done, it moves to another generation. But you can leave an impact. You have, and I know that the community knows that and rest assured, if it seems like this is an overabundance of praise for Kelly, it's genuine, being able to give like this is something that all of us have some capacity to do. And what I've taken away from this is that by doing this, you can further enhance that, which really drives you in the first place. This is a podcast designed for small business people. So of course, I'm trying to reach those people. That is there. Over arching, ambition to succeed in that realm. But what you've demonstrated is the power of giving selflessly in the volunteer and in the, nonprofit space enhancing that business operation. I think that's something really important for people to recognize for those who think there's not enough time. Hey, take a look at Kelly. Yes, there's time if you want it to be there, and I'm sure that you would say the rewards that you get for doing this are immense. Absolutely. And that's something we all need to have something for which we can, pat ourselves on the back because we need that too. Kelly, I am so grateful for this conversation. Thank you so much for being here with me today. I always enjoy my time with you Thank you. All right. folks, this is Ed Drozda, the small business doctor. I want to thank you for joining Kelly Fox and myself here at the water trough. And until we meet again, I want to wish you a healthy business.