Avi Friedman, Productivity Coach
change the world ep. 13
[00:00:00] Tzivia: Welcome to season two of the change, the world podcast. This season, I'm going to be speaking, not only with nonprofit founders, but with other nonprofit leaders, such as fundraising experts, communications,
executives, and board members. We'll be addressing some of the big issues facing Jewish nonprofits today and brainstorming ways that we can come
together to address them.
Thanks for joining. [00:00:30]
Hi, everybody. Thanks for joining me today. I have with me a Friedman who is
a productivity coach. He works with individuals, businesses, and nonprofits, and I'm excited for the conversation today. I think this is gonna be a little bit of a different kind of conversation than we usually have here. Avi. Thank you so much for joining.
Sure, thanks
[00:00:48] Guest: so much for having me pleasure here.
[00:00:49] Tzivia: So I was introduced to Avi by somebody we both work with.
And, you know, I was definitely intrigued a productivity coach is not something that I am too familiar with, [00:01:00] but as we got to chatting and Avi started saying some of the things that he helps nonprofits do my ears kind of perked up because I'm thinking to myself, wow, these are things my clients really, really struggle with.
So let's get into it a little bit a first. Tell me , tell me your background. How did you get into. Sure. So
[00:01:15] Guest: my background is I actually have an education in therapy, marriage, or family therapy. I got into this space though at a certain time in my life where I was working a full nine to five job with an hour commute each way I was balancing [00:01:30] a side business.
Going to graduate school for a second degree. And my little kids at home and my wife is of course, and I was completely swamped. I thought I was a
naturally organized person, but I quickly realized that just having that natural organization isn't sufficient for all the curve balls of life and all the different responsibilities I was having late payments on credit cards just to forgetting
when the deadline was.
I was always asking for extensions in graduate school. So I realized that there's a lot more skills and tools that I [00:02:00] need to develop for myself to be able to bring myself to not just surviving, but thriving that time period. So I took that, that life experience I took some courses, took some trainings and reached a point where I was able to not just survive, but also thrive under the circumstances.
And I realized that a lot of other people are dealing with the same things in their professional lives and their personal lives. So I wanted to help other people do the same thing that I went through. Wow.
[00:02:27] Tzivia: I, I love hearing our people like get started in their [00:02:30] specific field. It's always so interesting.
So how did that turn into, I know you work with businesses as well, but how did that turn into working with nonprofit?
[00:02:37] Guest: Sure. So I ever since I was in Yeshiva, I've always had that
affinity towards nonprofits. I do work in a cure center as well. So I do have
familiarity with the nonprofit space. And I realize that again, when we're doing all our voter code and we're working with all these incredible communal organizations, whether it's like a Tom Chaz kind of organization, whether it's a school [00:03:00] or a sh there's a lot of different opportunities for people to really benefit.
The general Jewish community and sometimes just fine tuning, little tips and
tricks or building a system that they can operate from, helps them find the space to be able to help their students and help impact cloud itself.
[00:03:21] Tzivia: Very cool. Okay. So tell me some things that you help the
nonprofit clients with.
[00:03:25] Guest: sure. So a lot of times when I'll meet with, with all different clients, whether non-profit or [00:03:30] regular, what we do is really just take a deep dive into how they manage all their projects, how they manage their responsibilities, how they manage their calendars, their emails, all the different components that go into a busy schedule.
And again, balancing personal life and responsibility. And as most nonprofits are, they're not necessarily nine to five jobs. So oftentimes you need to figure out how to structure your day appropriately that you're making sure. That you're not neglecting either your organization or your family. And so we take a deep dive into [00:04:00] all different parts of, of their current system.
Sometimes people are just lost in how to properly juggle and properly balance everything. And sometimes people have a general sense, but they
need some different tips and tricks to adjust or to. Pivot what their current system is to be able to accomplish all that they want to. I'm very
[00:04:21] Tzivia: curious. Do you find that it's the people in the nonprofit space struggling more, or do you think it's pretty equal to the business
[00:04:28] Guest: world?
From my [00:04:30] understanding it's pretty similar in terms of what their responsibilities are. In some ways, their, the business has more of a responsibility because they have like active customers and they're paying good money and they wanna make sure that they are getting the services or the products that they want.
On the other hand, when you're dealing in the nonprofits, you're dealing with
people's emotional lives and their personal lives that they want that touch, that, that added sense of, of accomplishment, that sense of, [00:05:00] of mission and passion in life. It really each, each one has their space. So I don't specifically see one having more of a need than others.
I think they're both pretty equal in that regard.
[00:05:11] Tzivia: Oh, okay. I'd be interested because I, like, I find a lot of our clients are just wearing so many hats just within their organization and that's not taking into account their personal lives. Right. Just curious to hear your take on that. So can you gimme like a more specific example of like one area where you would help a nonprofit improve with their productivity and what that would look. [00:05:30]
[00:05:30] Guest: sure. So a lot of different, again, with the nonprofits, again, as you said that they're wearing a lot of hats, so l et's say for example, tracking your students, right? Oftentimes then talking about nonprofit, um, whether it's a cure center or whether it's a school and they want to see where their alumni, where they're current students are, their they're growing and be able to track their progress.
So oftentimes we want to remember to check in periodically and how frequently to check in with them and. What happens oftentimes is [00:06:00] that we say, I'm going to check in quarterly. I'm going to set up a coffee meeting with my student, or I'm going to, or a donor donors are the same, same component. And making sure that we're doing these periodic touches and check-ins, and when we lose track of time, we lose track of our calendar.
And we realized it's been six months. It's been a year. It's been two years since I remembered about this student that I haven't touched base. And that could sever a relationship just based [00:06:30] on when you let too much time lapse in between, then it, it minimizes the impact in the relationship that you can have for longer term.
So being able to, let's say, for example, track all the students and making sure that the ones that you want to follow up with in a timely manner and making sure that you're doing that appropriately. Making sure that you're finding time in your day to allow space for phone calls or for coffee dates or for things of that nature.
And that will enable you to enable [00:07:00] organization to stay ahead of the game in terms of keeping track of people and not letting things slip through the cracks.
[00:07:07] Tzivia: Wow. And so the implementation of that on your end is mostly consulting. Are you doing software implementation? What are you
doing for. So
[00:07:15] Guest: for most organizations that I work with, the goal really is not
a specific software that they use, because again, you can choose and pick and choose what software works best for you.
Um, some people are pen and paper. Some people are Excel sheets. Some people are very tech savvy and they use [00:07:30] different apps or software custom built software. So that really depends on each person. What they feel is best for them. The goal really is to have an understanding of what the software or what the tracking methodology, what is purpose it's serving.
Meaning I have to set up the steps beforehand to say, I want to make sure that I remember to track this person every two months. And then when two months comes, what exactly do I wanna do with that person? Do I want to have a coffee date? Do I want to solicit the donor? Do I want to. [00:08:00] Learn with the student, whatever I want to do, I need to first have an understanding of my goals and what my strategy is, and then finding a specific software or even non-software could be just a pen and paper.
And people do journals. People use Excel sheets, nothing too fancy, but really just having the strategy in place. And then finding a tool afterwards that serves you and your person. Got
[00:08:24] Tzivia: it. Got it. That makes a lot of sense. So I wanna go back cuz you mentioned the calendar and I, I just find [00:08:30] that the calendar seems to be the enemy of many of the clients that I work with.
Whereas like for example, they'll have the same campaign every year around the same time yet. They'll only kind of remember to start scrambling, to plan for it like a month before. And, and that's when they'll call me and I'll have to tell them like, I'm really sorry. I can't help you. So, what do you do for clients?
Or what do you recommend for nonprofits who kind of have this, like, you know, constant things creeping up on them, even if they really should have known to be dealing with them [00:09:00] earlier.
[00:09:00] Guest: Right. So I guess would differentiate between people that are starting from scratch, people that are first starting a campaign.
They don't necessarily know the ins and outs of how long things take versus an organization, as you mentioned, that has experienced year after, after year doing the same campaign. So from, from a starter campaign, obviously a lot of things are unknowns in terms of how long things take and how far in advance do I need to, uh, let's say for example, if you're doing a raffle, how far in advance do I need to secure prize? [00:09:30]
Or how long in advance do I need to start marketing or versus a dinner? Were you talking about how far in advance do I need to secure honoree secure a venue, things of that nature? So those are really, again, speaking to business strategists or nonprofit strategists in that space to be able to give the proper guidelines for what it entails and then utilizing your calendar in a way which serves that, which serves those deadlines, serves those timeframes for organizations.
Already have those timelines in place. They already know that for the last
couple [00:10:00] years, they've been advised by whether it's people that are in the field and have experience, whether it's actual strateg. That it takes a certain amount of time. It takes, you need to have six months in advance. You need to have X, Y, and Z done.
You need something else. Four months in advance, you start printing the invitations or whatever else it entails. So having a calendar where you structure that, I know that in the month of February, I'm going to develop these six tasks for the fundraiser and for the event that we're having, I [00:10:30] need to know that.
November, I'm going to need to secure a venue for that Hanukah party or
whatever it's. So having it broken down by month will help you just navigate far in advance for the different programs that you're having, whether it's a
fundraiser, whether it's an actual program. And keeping track with folders or
whether it's digital folders or physical folders and knowing what needs to be
addressed in which month to be able to set yourself up at a proper pace to, uh, [00:11:00] not meet those tight deadlines
[00:11:01] Tzivia: with it.
And that's something you help them with that like monthly. Okay. Yeah,
absolutely. I think that sounds very necessary. So anyone who works with
nonprofits knows that their number, one thing that they worry about and think about all night. Fundraising. Right. It's kind of, you know, and often to the detriment of like the other operations that need to get done, do you overlap with the fundraising development teams and like, do you work on things like things to do with donors? [00:11:30]
[00:11:30] Guest: so I don't, I don't work in terms of strategies for how to develop donors and how to solicit potential donors and prospects. But what I do do is help people manage their system in terms of the preparation for it. And in terms of follow ups. Right? So if you, I 'm not gonna advise someone how to do the ask or what kind of ask to do, but if they know that they need to have certain materials ready prior, or they need to have certain emails sent.
And if they don't have proper guidance and proper structure, The [00:1 2:00] date that they wanna send the email, what kind of email they wanna send? Who's sending it. Is it something that needs to be a specific day or it could be over the length of a week? That again will play a role in how it's put on your calendar.
Cause what happens oftentimes is. People put on their calendar. And I had this experience myself that I've been trying to do this task for a week. I'm just gonna pick a day and I'm gonna do it on that day. Right. And what often happens if it's not time sensitive, it doesn't need to be that day. Then those things end up snoozing.
Like we [00:12:30] snooze our alarm clock, they snooze on, I can't do it today. I'm gonna do it tomorrow. And then next thing you know, What I used to have when I was in school, I had 45 reminders on my phone of things that I in theory wanted to do that day. And you end up becoming numb to those reminders because there are just so many of them.
So rather when we structure our calendar to knowing that what's on the due date for today is a must. It's a deadline that it's a hard. It's a task that I told someone I follow up on a Thursday, I'm gonna make sure [00:13:00] that on Thursday, I'm going to actually follow up with them, not just picking a day out of the air.
That really is helpful, both in regards to programming, but especially in terms of donors, when donors have that expectation that I'm gonna be professional. I'm going to make sure that I follow up with them properly, that I'm actually doing that in the effective way.
[00:13:19] Tzivia: Got it. So do you think, would you say what you do is more
about their day to day operations?
Is it more about helping them scale and reach their goals? Or do you think it's, it's kind of [00:13:30] both.
[00:13:30] Guest: So again, it really encompasses both, right? Because there's different skill sets that are from a day to day, how to manage my, my time, how to manage my tasks. If I have a to-do list. If I have to email three donors, I have to make seven phone calls and I have to set up the room at the office for a lunch and learn, right.
Or all those different things. Are all day to day tasks and understanding how to set up our task list and, and just one tool that I help with my clients [00:14:00] as David Allen. And GTD points out if you have a to-do list based on the context of when you can do that action, that is crucial in terms of getting it done.
For example, if I know that I'm gonna be taking an hour drive and I have a list
of all the calls I need to make between all the projects, whether it's personal professional, and I have seven phone calls to make. In that hour drive, I'll be
able to get a lot done and be very productive in that regard.
However, if I have a full to-do list, if I have [00:14:30] 50 60 items on there and interspersed are things to pick up at the store, things to, uh, set up at the office to repair the, the handle in the office or things like that, that I I've just become numb to the full. And then I'm not gonna go and be proactive about accomplishing that when it's divided based on context.
That's really when I can say, you know what, I'm in the office here are the tasks that I can do in the office. Here are the tasks that are phone calls. Here are the tasks that I need to discuss whether with my [00:15:00] spouse, whether with someone at the office, whether with a special donor, having these lists based on those context is really beneficial for.
So that's really with the day to day, right? That's what I help people with the day to day manage their calendar, time blocks, et cetera. When it comes to, to larger scale, what those oftentimes fall into are more longer term projects and projects could be anything like fixing something at, at our office.
It could be hiring an assistant. It could [00:15:30] be larger scale of planning an event and having those projects and knowing how to manage all those projects that we have. Simultaneously is something that really will help us to manage the medium size ideas and concepts. And then for scaling is the third component.
So it's like a three ring circus, right? You have the, the day to day you have the monthly or, or quarterly, and then you have more of like the longer term scale and making sure that we have meetings set up to. Go over [00:16:00] what our business strategy is, how have we been doing, what are our goals? How do we get to those goals and what projects or steps we need to take to reach.
Got
[00:16:08] Tzivia: it. Wow. That sounds like something. I think that most organizations would find really helpful. What about like staff? I find that most of the organizations be worked with, they don't have departments, like there's no marketing department and right. Just a lot of people doing a lot of things. Is that something you're able to kind of help people figure out is how to delegate roles, how to make sure, you know, one person is not doing far too much and vice
versa. [00:16:30]
Yeah. So
[00:16:31] Guest: again, so what happens is oftentimes when I do an intake and I do a discovery strategy or a strategy session with people, what I we go through is what are all the responsibilities that you have on your plate? And what I try to do myself is do a mind sweep when I feel overwhelmed, oftentimes is because I have so much stuff on my mind and it's not processed in a way of where I know how it's getting done when it's getting done.
If it's getting done and by whom it's getting done. That leads to the overwhelm. When we just go through, it's [00:17:00] really a simple exercise to write out all the different things that are on our head. Again, it could take a long time and if we've never done it before, it could take an hour or two, if you do it more consistently, it'd be more about like 15, 20 minutes.
And really just go through all the different things that are on our head, all the responsibilities we have at work. And I'm sure a lot of people, if you had an official resume within their nonprofit, Of all the tasks and responsibilities, it would be 15 pages long of all the different things that they do when you.
All bit written out and [00:17:30] broken down into different components. Then you can itemize and say, you know what? This is something that I feel as the head of the organization or as a one of the board members or one of the, the people in the office administration. This is something that I have been doing, but I feel it's not the best usage of my.
My strengths and my resources for me to be doing that. Let's pick some of these tasks that can be delegated towards an assistant towards office staff, towards volunteers or [00:18:00] whoever is helping us within the organization to be able to make sure that we are setting ourselves up as the head of the organization or as a, a manager, an organization that I'm doing the things that are critical that I.
As opposed to spending my time with tasks that do not necessarily need, need my resources or my personality to do. Got
[00:18:21] Tzivia: it. Wow. That's really cool. So before we end off, do you have any practical tips that, you know, someone who works for nonprofit might be struggling with some of [00:18:30] these issues? Do you have any practical tips you can share with them?
They can take away today. So
[00:18:34] Guest: definitely the first one is what I would say is doing a mind sweep is really just to again, take all the stuff off their heads and that happens oftentimes it's overwhelmed, uh, which again, we do get overwhelmed and trying to just, just to get an assessment, it's really just to build an awareness of where we are, what we're doing and how we're doing it.
And just to, to at least have it in the front of our minds to be able to understand. What else? I would advise different tools that I use.
[00:19:00] One example I like is the two minute rule, which is when you're making a task list. If you're making a, to do list aside for putting in by context, if I have a task that could be done within a two minute timeframe it's and I could be doing it now.
And not that it needs to be done in a couple months from now, then just. Don't don't write it down. Don't snooze. It, just do it because oftentimes what happens is that email that I'm just avoiding to write or that errand I'm trying to do, or that [00:19:30] light bulb that's been been out for for months. And I'm just like passing by every day.
I'm like, no, I really should be changing that light bulb. I really should have someone change that light bulb and just passing by it that the cognitive load that it adds to us is that every time I'm looking by it, I'm like, you know, I really could do this quickly, but I'm just not gonna get to it right now.
So taking, finding those two minute tasks really is, is very beneficial. And then
the second thing is when you have a project, we have a larger project, right?
Oftentimes when we have [00:20:00] again, hiring assistant or setting up a fundraiser or even smaller projects in terms of drafting a proposal or writing up a budget, applying for a grant, et cetera, What we should try to do is really break it down into small, manageable, actionable steps.
Right. Cause if I ask anyone in a non-profit or non-profit. Do you have two hours set aside to do, to work on a project? Most people will tell you like, I'm swamped. I don't have two hours, like who has two hours in [00:20:30] their day? Like I'm not on vacation, but if we have it broken down into the next action, which really is what can I do within the next 10 minutes to bring this project forward?
Does it mean. Call and making a phone call just to get guidance. Does it mean to spend 10 minutes researching? Does it mean spend 10 minutes in
brainstorming all the different parts of the project by breaking it down into small manageable tests will help us bring it from a theory to completion.
[00:20:59] Tzivia: Amazing.
[00:21:00] I'm gonna take some of those to heart too. I'm so bad at that. but I have things pushed off on my list for, I'm not even gonna admit how long, but yeah. Anyway, thank you so much. This was really, really interesting. If someone is listening to this and they sound intrigued and they wanna get in touch with you, what's the best way.
[00:21:15] Guest: Sure. So the best way is just shoot me a, a direct message or DM on LinkedIn. That's really where I'm very available and very, um, reachable. You can also send me an email, Avi managed minds.co one of those two, really, but LinkedIn is [00:21:30] really probably the easiest for most people. Just to shoot me a, a message saying, Hey, I heard the podcast love to set up a session just to a free strategy session, just to talk.
[00:21:40] Tzivia: Awesome. Thank you so much. It was really nice chatting with you. Absolutely
[00:21:43] Guest: pleasure.
[00:21:48] Tzivia: Thanks for listening to this episode of the change, the world podcast. If you have any feedback or comments, or if you are a nonprofit leader who is interested in learning more about how 14 mine can help you, I'd love to hear [00:22:00] from you. You can reach me by email@ciaatfourteenmines.com for more nonprofit content.
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