Transformational Leadership in Nonprofit Organizations with Sabine Gedeon

Our world needs transformational leaders more than ever. For a variety of reasons, nonprofit leaders tend to put their own professional development and growth last on their priority list. 

Sabine Gedeon helps leaders of all stripes - not just CEOs - work on their mindset, get over their own egos and fears, and truly embrace their role and excel. 

Sabine Gedeon is a Transformation Coach, Leadership Consultant, and Business Strategist, and the author of the book, Transformed, The Journey to Becoming.  She  supports organizations in the growth and development of their Emerging Leaders, and in return, helps to increase engagement, retention & profitability. 

Sabine's superpower is helping ambitious, purpose-driven leaders transform their thinking and actions to achieve greater results and experience more impact in life and business.

Here are some of the topics we discussed: 

• How can we as leaders better deal with and anticipate change?
• Ways that we can leave our comfort zone to pursue our purpose
• Tips to embrace fear and turn it into a positive 
• Examples of innovative nonprofits to learn from and emulate 

A Sabine Gedeon quotable: "My focus is transforming people into courageous leaders. Courage is not the absence of fear. It's doing the thing with the fear."

Connect with Sabine:
https://sabinegedeon.com/leadershipbranding/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sabinegedeon
https://www.instagram.com/sabinegedeon/

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About Julia Campbell, the host of the Nonprofit Nation podcast:

Named as a top thought leader by Forbes and BizTech Magazine, Julia Campbell (she/hers) is an author, coach, and speaker on a mission to make the digital world a better place.

She wrote her book, Storytelling in the Digital Age: A Guide for Nonprofits, as a roadmap for social change agents who want to build movements using engaging digital storytelling techniques. Her second book, How to Build and Mobilize a Social Media Community for Your Nonprofit, was published in 2020 as a call-to-arms for mission-driven organizations to use the power of social media to build movements. Julia’s online courses, webinars, and talks have helped hundreds of nonprofits make the shift to digital thinking and raise more money online.

Clients include Mastercard, Facebook, GoFundMe, Meals on Wheels America, the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. 

Take my free masterclass: 3 Must-Have Elements of Social Media Content that Converts

Transcript

Julia Campbell: 0:02

Hello, and welcome to nonprofit Nation. I'm your host, Julia Campbell. And I'm going to sit down with nonprofit industry experts, fundraisers, marketers, and everyone in between to get real and discuss what it takes to build that movement that you've been dreaming of. I created the nonprofit nation podcast to share practical wisdom and strategies to help you confidently Find Your Voice. Definitively grow your audience and effectively build your movement. If you're a nonprofit newbie, or an experienced professional, who's looking to get more visibility, reach more people and create even more impact, then you're in the right place. Let's get started. All right. Hi, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of nonprofit Nation. I'm your host, Julia Campbell, really excited to be here with you today. Thanks for tuning in. And I have a special guest for you today. Her name is Sabine Gideon. And she is a transformation coach, which we're going to talk about because I think I have not heard of that until I met Sabine. So I want everyone to know what that is. She's also an executive coach, a leadership consultant and a business strategist. And she wrote the book transformed the journey to becoming an as a coach and consultant. She supports organizations in the growth and development of their emerging leaders, and in return helps to increase engagement, retention and profitability. And I love this her superpower is helping ambitious purpose driven leaders transform their thinking and actions to achieve greater results and experience more impact in life and business. Yes, I'm gonna get some free coaching today. Okay. Welcome to Bing.

Sabina Gedeon: 2:02

Thank you, Julia, thank you so much for having me on your show. Yeah.

Julia Campbell: 2:05

And you have a podcast too?

Sabina Gedeon: 2:07

I do. It's also called the journey to becoming just kept it in the family.

Julia Campbell: 2:12

I love that. Okay, well, we'll talk about that. So let's begin with your story. How did you get involved? And how did you get started in the work that you're doing now.

Sabina Gedeon: 2:20

So I will take you back to February 18 1982. Book, but I'll start off with probably around 2016, I felt this leading to, you know, really take a leap and start my business. And it actually started quite a few years before that in 2011, where, you know, trying to be a resume writer and career coach to friends and family. And like after 20 or 30 resumes Reagan I maybe made like$150 because they either didn't want to pay me or I was too scared to ask for payment. So I quickly pivoted, for lack of a myth there, you know, continued on my path of climbing the corporate ladder. My background is in human resources. That's what I did my undergrad and really, really busted my butt for about 10 years to get to the place where, you know, I felt like I had reached or achieved my dream job, went back to school to get my masters and everything. And six months in to getting this dream job, which was like an HR business partner, I realized, wait a minute, this is not what I want to do for the next 30 plus years of my life. And so I had a whole identity crisis. Because for 10 years, I was chasing this dream for 10 years, I was sacrificing in so many different ways to you know, achieve this role or this title. You know, it was a blessing. And to be quite honest, even though at the moment, it didn't feel like oh, yeah, failure, and I felt lost. But what it forced me to do was to really think back over the course of my career and identify the skills and the things that I did, where I felt the most fulfilled, and I felt the most alive. And for me, it was in the moments where I was sitting across from an internal candidate that didn't get the job or was looking for the next level and coaching them through like, Okay, well, what's your end goal? And then helping them back into Okay, well, what projects do you need to work on? What assignments do you need to take on? And also during that time to was coaching leaders? I always say, we're probably tired of hearing me say this, but I do believe that leaders are the most underserved in organizations as far as your development. Yeah, and the reason I believe that is because obviously, you know, once you're in a leadership position, there are certain expectations that people have of you. And so being able to know everything, have all the answers count.

Julia Campbell: 4:43

You've got all the answers. You don't need

Sabina Gedeon: 4:44

to coach. Exactly. You have all the answers and then let's be honest, there's a lot of ego there's a lot of bravado, right of like not willing to be vulnerable and saying, Hey, I need help, or simply I don't know, or I'm scared. So I don't know. Call it a God given gift, I feel like I've always had this ability to get them to put down those walls as my approach of just approaching them like human beings versus the title that they carry. And so you know, being able to help them develop help their teams develop that was rewarding and fulfilling for me. So long story short, I ended up jumping ship and becoming a corporate job drop out June of 2018, to start my business and career coaching, and I was literally dealing with individuals who are looking to shift careers. So whether they were in banking, and they were looking to do you know, something completely different or teacher looking to be in recruiting. You know, that's why I wanted to, that's why I was serving and helping. And I realized then that regardless of the jump that they were making into this new different industry, it took more than just okay, what are your transferable skills, leverage that into the other place? It was really working with their mindset

Julia Campbell: 6:01

so that I took care of that, again, it's like therapy. Yes, yes.

Sabina Gedeon: 6:07

It was helping them embody this new identity before they even got the role, because they had to believe that who they were as a banker, teacher, whatever, was still relevant to who they would be, as you know, whatever that next part of their journey was. I absolutely love that. Yes. And so that's where I kind of, I think I just started to fall into my niche, so to speak, where, you know, I still want to work with leaders, because again, I do believe they are the most underserved. But I do believe that even at different phases in our lives, we are transforming and transitioning. And there is a process that we're going through, that requires, you know, a shift in our identity, a shift in our mindset, a shift in our beliefs of what we're capable of, and a willingness to, you know, be a learner all over again. And this happens, whether you're talking about a role, whether you're talking about entrepreneurship, whether you're talking about you know, someone who is single and gets married, or you know, is not a mom and becomes a mom, life gives us so many opportunities to transform on a regular basis, I just niched down to individuals who are shifting in their leadership capacity.

Julia Campbell: 7:22

So as a transformation coach, you really help people make the mindset shift from where they are to where they want to be. So can you tell me about the clients that you work with?

Sabina Gedeon: 7:36

Yeah, more or less? I was thinking about this earlier, I

Julia Campbell: 7:38

was just like, I probably simplified it way too much.

Sabina Gedeon: 7:41

No, no, all good. I was thinking I was like, Well, I guess every coach would want to would claim that they were transformational coach, right? Or else, you're not really coaching. But the way that I approached this is, oftentimes, especially in, you know, traditional leadership, coaching environments, the focus is usually around, you know, the hard skills, like your executive presence, and your decision making and all that's all extremely important and relevant, and you know, you should be focused on that. But where I focus on is the person, right, because I truly believe that whatever's happening on the outside is a reflection of what's happening on the inside. And so I deal with the core stuff on the inside, that could have that negative impact externally, and not just on the environment, but on the people who you know, are looking to you or looking to that particular leader, to, you know, lead guide them and be a role model for them. So, my focus is, let's get to the person, let's get the person okay. So that is your mindset that is dealing with all of your insecurities that is dealing with your imposter syndrome, that is dealing with, you know, your procrastination, your fear, I work with a lot of type A ambitious people, the word failure is like a fourth letter word

Julia Campbell: 9:03

animates? Yeah. Yeah, I am.

Sabina Gedeon: 9:07

And getting them to understand that, you know, failure is part of success. Failure is part of the process to getting to the next place, and embracing it. And the same thing with fear, not seeing fear as a reason to, you know, create a barrier or deter you from moving over, or to the next level. It's more of hey, when fear shows up, it's a reflection that okay, you're stepped outside of your comfort zone. And this just means that and that's all that means, right? And it just means that you take fear with you. So my focus is really on the courageous leader, or transforming people into the courageous leader because courage is not the absence of fear. It's doing the thing with the fear. So it's about really shifting their mindset of how they see themselves how they see the realities around them, so that as they grow We step into and embody this leadership role. They within themselves won't create opportunities to self sabotage.

Julia Campbell: 10:08

What do you think is the biggest thing holding people back from being courageous leaders,

Sabina Gedeon: 10:13

the fear of fear, the fear of failure, fear in any capacity. Like I mentioned before, you know, when you're in a leadership role, and let me just take a step back. When I'm saying leadership, I really mean that as broad as possible, because I do believe that we are all leaders, whether you're leading an organization, you're leading your business, you're leading your household, you're leading in your community, right? We all have, I believe the seeds of leadership, they just show up and tested in different ways in our lives and our capacities. But I do believe that, you know, that fear of not having all the answers are not doing the right thing, or you know, what every you're perceiving as failure that is holding you back. Because at the end of the day, a lot of the stuff that we do, let's be real, starting a business, or if you take on a new role or move to a new city, there's so much we don't know, there's so much we don't know, and allowing yourself to be vulnerable to say, hey, I don't know, but I'm willing to learn. So I do think that that is a setback, asking for help. That's another one or the fear of asking for help. Because you you know, you're you'll be perceived as not knowing. I don't know, you know, you think about when we're kids, right? There's so much we don't know, like, we don't come into the world thinking like, oh, my gosh, I got to know everything, right? kids ask a million questions,

Julia Campbell: 11:39

a million questions.

Sabina Gedeon: 11:41

Yes. Because they want to know, they want to understand,

Julia Campbell: 11:44

they don't feel stupid. They don't say this is a stupid question. But they just asked the question.

Sabina Gedeon: 11:50

Exactly. But somewhere along the way, as adults, right, we learn all asking questions is a bad thing, or it's a reflection of me in a negative way. And so I think that getting to the place where we're willing to ask questions, and that really comes from keeping that learners mindset, because whether you're the CEO, or whether you're entry level, you should always be in that growth mindset. And it be in a posture to be learning and be willing to learn from the people around you, and the people under you.

Julia Campbell: 12:21

So it's so interesting. I don't know if you know my story of how I got started in my business, but I was laid off from my development director job at seven, eight months pregnant with my first daughter, that was 11 years ago, when my first child, I have a daughter and a son, and the complete feeling of failure, and anger and humiliation, and then also just uncertainty. And my husband had just started a job that we didn't know. And it was a recession. And it was just, it was a nightmare for a while. But I definitely agree with what you're saying about the fear of fear and imposter syndrome. And thinking that I, you know, I had all of the skills, I had the right tools, I just wasn't sure how to really leverage them. And I didn't know you know what I needed to be doing. But thankfully, I started my business. And I haven't looked back. But I think that holds a lot of people back is just that fear of uncertainty and then not knowing the next step, like not being able to see five years or even three years in the distance that really trips a lot of people up. And that's why they stay kind of comfortable. And the status quo, which leads me to, you know, your blog, which I've really am a huge fan of I've been reading a lot about it I'm so I'm just so into productivity and goal setting. And I told you earlier, I'm taking an entire day to reset my goals to plan for the rest of the year. So in one of your posts, you write about how we can leave our comfort zone to pursue purpose. So I think that's going to really speak to a lot of the nonprofit's on this. I was gonna say a webinar, a lot of nonprofits on this podcast. So what are some ways that we can do this?

Sabina Gedeon: 14:17

Yeah, great question. And as you were talking about your story, the one thing that made me think of as you share, sometimes, the unknown is the thing that like keeps people stuck are always one fear. But if you really think about it, 2020 did nothing. I think at the very least it shows us that we're not in control anyways. Right? There's so much that is out of our control. There's so much that is so many variables, right that can happen. So rather than being in fear of not knowing the next step or not knowing what's going to happen, you know, make the decision to say okay, these things could happen right like there I use this strategy of worst case scenario. Right. So thinking through, if you're having a moment, and you're like, Okay, I want to take this next step, I'm not sure or I'm scared or whatever the case may be. We know in our minds, we're thinking all the negative things that could happen, right? And so because we think we're pondering on that, that's what keeps us stuck. But the challenge would be, okay, take all of those negative things that you're thinking about all those negative sere scenarios, right? Write them down, right? Face them, rather than just kind of like run from them in your own mind. Write them down, face them. And for each one, make a plan. Simply make a plan, right? So get the worst thing. I'll give you a perfect example, when I was leaving corporate America. And you know, I didn't really have clients, I didn't know I had worked. I've been working since I was 13. And so I've never not had a job. And so the thought of like, oh, my gosh, how am I going to provide for myself? Like, you know, who am I family can help me like, I haven't even given notice yet. Julia, and I was already homeless on the street. Yeah. Like,

Julia Campbell: 16:04

that's where your brain goes, Yes, that's

Sabina Gedeon: 16:06

where my mind went. And it wasn't until I read this book. And it talked about do an assessment of your finances, how much money do you have available to you, whether it's credit, your savings, and all that other stuff? Like, look at the information, you want other information, I had more than a year's worth of financial resources to carry me, right. And so it, it took away all have that fear of being homeless right in in there. So that's a little tidbit or side from the question that you asked. But that's what it made me think of like how people can overcome the fears that like really caused them to say stuff or prevent them from step up stepping outside of their comfort zone basis, and then create a plan that will help you or at least give you some level of reprieve that, at least if I take this step, I'm going to be okay. And then when the next fear pops up into your mind, face it. Okay, what's the worst case scenario? How do I plan around it? And then continue to move forward?

Julia Campbell: 17:08

Right. So actually, yeah, and we'll get back to the question. But I love that because I do think for nonprofits, they go into this doomsday mindset, especially in the last year, and saying, Well, oh, my gosh, what if all of our donations dry up, a lot of nonprofits did faced real financial hardships and real crises. But a lot of my clients, they have these fears. And then like you said, we just created a plan to say, let's face it, let's look at it. Like if we don't get this federal grant, what can we do? Like, what are our next steps, because losing sleep over that is not it's just not worth losing sleep over things you can't control, like, trying to figure out a way that you can control maybe even a tiny piece of it, I love that you say not pushing them away, you know, not stopping them down, facing your fears, facing your worries, and then creating that kind of that next step situation like what is the worst that can happen? Okay, here's what we could do to kind of combat that. I think that's really helpful. And for a lot of nonprofits that, you know, I know, they have so many, so much pressure on them so many fires to put out so many things in the world that are very uncertain, like the very uncertain times, which has been said way too often, to have plans for every scenario, or at least just a couple of steps. You don't have to plan the whole way through, really, I know, helps put me my peace of mind helps me really put my worries to rest. So that's great.

Sabina Gedeon: 18:42

So on the on the actual question you asked, was all tied together? Yeah. On the nonprofit side, you know, obviously, companies last year, nonprofits, for profits, they all were faced with challenges, whether you were one or you know, 100,000 person company, one of the things that I noticed or began to notice, both on the nonprofit side, and on the for profit side was, you know, the organizations or the leaders who were, I won't even say that they were like, so much more like innovative and forward thinking, right? It was they didn't sit there in there. They didn't sit long. Doesn't mean that we didn't have the fear. It doesn't mean that they didn't have the worry, they just didn't sit long in it. And they began to pivot, right. So you saw like, fitness trainers, you know, overnight, like I don't have gym to go to right? Oh, okay, online, we're gonna use that. You saw businesses like grocery stores, right? Oh, people aren't coming in. Let's figure out a delivery service. Right. So they use the opportunity they use the crisis to say, Okay, how we've been doing things is no longer working, what are our options, right? And so in some, some of the nonprofit realm you saw them, you know, tapping into Different donor pools, or you saw more partnerships, more alliances with others, right, like, you know, bringing resources together versus trying to pull from the same lesson pool, if you will. So I think that the from a leadership perspective, and for those who are in that space, it's never easy. It probably always feels like you're strapped for cash. I've been on a board of a nonprofit, and I've actually worked for not for profit organizations, which I learned was a difference. And so one of the things that, you know, I even when I sat on the board, you know, I always used to talk about, like, yes, we have the sources, right. And there's always a threat every single year, a year, every year that these sources are going to go away. So where else can we be tapping into who else needs to know that we exist? And who else can we partner with that is more than willing to invest or enable right? And so I think it's the shift in the mindset of, we should always whether it's a for profit organization or not for profit organization, we should always be looking to how do we expand our sources of revenue? And when things start to happen, rather than just sit in that chaos and that confusion, kind of like, Okay, who else? Because guess what, in what we're seeing now, we'll probably see the manifestation of it a few years from now. But when you think about the crisis from 2008 2009, that's where Uber was birth. That's where all of these companies like that we are now so dependent on, right, that's what my company was born to. So yeah, they were birthed out of crisis, because we needed something different. And so I would challenge nonprofit leaders and for profit leaders, I like to look at this as where's the opportunity in this for us?

Julia Campbell: 21:50

Hey, there, I'm interrupting this episode to share an absolutely free training that I created that's getting nonprofits of all sizes, big results. Sure, you've been spending hours on social media, but what can you actually show for it? With all this posting, and Instagramming and tick talking doesn't really translate into action. In my free training, I'll show you exactly how to take people from passive fans to passionate supporters. And I'll give you specific steps to create social media content that actually converts, head on over to nonprofits, Zap convert.com. Again, that's nonprofits that convert calm, and start building a thriving social media community, for your nonprofit right now, without a big team, lots of tech overwhelm, or getting stuck on the question, what do I do next? Let me show you how it's done. I can't wait to see what you create. I think that looking at it from that perspective, does change things. And I know, the organizations that are going to survive and thrive are ones that, like you said, did not put their heads in the sand and just sort of wait for the dust to settle and wait for things to go back to normal. Because things First of all, are never going back to normal. I don't even know what that means, like, what is normal? What year was that? When everything was normal? And they're not going to be you know, things are being done very, very differently. Right now they're having hybrid events, we're having virtual events. We are doing digital fundraising, nonprofits have had to shift so much in the past year, and the businesses have to obviously, almost overnight. I guess another question I have, you know, how, how can we as leaders, and I believe I fully believe in what you're saying about everyone is a leader in some way? How can we better deal with an anticipate change? And you talked a little bit about some of the positives, things that came out of 2020. But what are some of the things maybe we could leave behind?

Sabina Gedeon: 24:04

Yeah, it's just a pain changes. This is gonna sound a little morbid, right? I usually share like, there are two things that are absolutes, and they are inevitable in this life or this side of life. And that is change and death. Right? It's going to happen. In both cases, we don't know when, right? Both cases, they're usually very disruptive, you know, and, you know, painful sometimes to go through, but they're always going to happen. And I think it goes back to a mindset, right of if you know, like, change is going to happen, Nothing stays the same, right? Rather than again, like you mentioned, put your head in the sand and be like, okay, everything's gonna go be okay. It's no How do I plan for change? And again, realistically, we can't plan for every contingency, right? No one, no one could have planned for COVID Right. and the destruction that it's brought through no one can plan for a tornado or a hurricane or, you know, donor pulling out or funding or anything like that. can't plan for that. But we know it's a possibility. So the question then becomes, what are we doing in the good years? Right in like, the fruitful years to plan for, you know, these times of amazing biblical times here? Famine, right? What can we be doing? And not only just when it gets here, but again, seeing through the lens of, okay, this crisis has come, or this change has come, it's disruptive. Let me take a step back from you know, being in this and look to see, okay, well, what's happening? What are people saying is important to them now, right. You look at for a lot of companies, employees are outraged at the thought of having to go back to work, right there outrage at the thought of having to go back into an office. So you know, again, I'm thinking through this like, oh, okay, well, that means a lot of companies can now save some money on the leasing, right. Oh, yeah, buildings that they had, if they don't necessarily need them. You know, it's just like those things like, okay, how can we cut costs? And before you touch people, of course, before people buy, where are the other opportunities that saying, Okay, well, before, we could only source really good talent from this local area? Now we have the entire nation where we can source talent, right? And so again, it goes back to how are you? How are you looking at the situation? And how are you planning for it before it gets here, and then obviously, when the change takes place?

Julia Campbell: 26:44

Absolutely. And that, that just brings me to my own personal story of a silver lining during COVID, which is that my husband, he had to commute, you know, over an hour and a half each way, sometimes two hours, to get to work in the city, with horrific public transportation here in Boston, don't even get me started, and snow and winter, and I used and everything. And when the pandemic hadn't shut everything down, his boss decided, you know, what we don't need to be coming in. So let's work remotely as long as we can, and then see what happens. And now the restrictions have been lifted, the state emergency has been lifted in Massachusetts, and they've decided that they're not going back to that office, because like you said, they're saving hundreds of 1000s of dollars on the rent, tons of money on parking tons of money on all of you know, all of the things that go into commuting or having an office and overhead. And they're taking that and they're probably gonna hire another person. They're just using it to really expand what they're doing and think about work in a different way. I absolutely think that the role of leaders is to start thinking about how we can do things in a different way. Because challenging the status quo, there really is no status quo right now. And what are we going to leave behind? What are we going to take with us? What are some of the opportunities like you are saying, the opportunities that we're going to pursue, I think another example, especially for the nonprofit sector, the transition to virtual fundraising, so or having some kind of virtual part of your gala your golf tournament, your auction that makes things not only more accessible for a lot of people, but you're able to bring in a wider variety of people. So you know, weeknights are challenging for people with young kids or challenging for people that work really late, or, you know, it's hard to get dressed up and go to a gala on a Tuesday night. But it's not as hard to maybe tune in or make a donation online and participate that way. So I think we're seeing that was our narrow lens of how we saw the world is shifting. And I'm really hoping that we, you know, see more innovation out of it.

Sabina Gedeon: 29:03

I'm even thinking from like, expanding reach, right? So, you know, there's so many amazing nonprofits out there who do such great work, right, whether it's locally or nationally. Now you have a captive audience, almost online, right? There's a lot of noise, don't get me wrong, but captive audience, so putting on workshops or master classes, that kind of speak to the issues that you know, that you're that you're dealing with, that you're supporting in a local community or a larger area, you know, putting on educational courses online for an hour, whether it's on a monthly basis, or weekly basis, to draw in more people, again, from all over the country now to help support so you know, it doesn't have to be like this, you know, just the list that you have, or, you know, just the people who have donated in the past. Now, it's an opportunity. Let's educate more people on what we do, and now they're more willing to sit on zoom for an hour or you know, some other program for an hour to learn. So how can we create an educational opportunity out of this that will then hopefully convert into actual funders.

Julia Campbell: 30:13

I love that. I want to just shift a little bit because we are coming up to time. But I really want to get some, some kind of free advice from you. I'm working with a lot of my clients, and I am doing goal setting. So you don't even need to do goal setting. At the middle of the year, you can really do goal setting at any point if you need to shift. That's what I think is kind of crazy. Why do we only do goal setting in December and January like we should be constantly looking at our goals and doing goal setting throughout the year? So you talk about life changing goals on your blog, and what are they and how are they different from regular goals?

Sabina Gedeon: 30:53

Yeah, so I'll give you a perfect example. The week before last, I took a whole week off to do

Julia Campbell: 30:58

some plantings, I definitely need a week another day. But that's another conversation. That's amazing, right?

Sabina Gedeon: 31:06

It was also my quote unquote, vacation. This is this is what I do for vacation nowadays, I plan. But for me, you know, for the most part with my business, it has been very much so like, quarter to quarter planning, right? And can I say that that's that's worked out the best that I could probably not right? Because the the vision is so short, right? And so I challenged myself to create a five year vision for me and for my business. And so in that five year vision, I had prayed about it. And I was just like, God, I need this to be a vision that is bigger than myself, right? Because I believe this thing that I'm doing is bigger than me. And it's meant to impact more people. Because if you ask me five year vision, I find like, oh, successful in my business, seven figures that like you know, it'd be trivial at best. And I was just like, I need you to give me a vision that is beyond me. And so the vision that I came up with is in five years, I want to be one of the top 10 leadership voices for you know, people of color, because I looked around and I did you know, I did the research and you know, you have your Tony Robbins or John Maxwell, you have these amazing minds amazing people. But when you really start to hone in on like, women of color, specifically, that starts to dwindle. And so I identify, I can't even say I did it. I got the revelation. And then I identify the space that I could fill five years from now, big vision, right? Because no one knows me.

Julia Campbell: 32:35

No, that's not true. I love that.

Sabina Gedeon: 32:37

And so I started with Who am I going to be five years from now, I didn't start with the what I'm going to do. I started with the Who am I going to be? Because as you if you think about what I said in the beginning, whatever your role is, whatever it is that you're doing in a leadership capacity, it really starts with who you are. And it's going to be reflected externally in what you do, and the people around you. So I started with who I want to be. And based on who I want to be in the next five years, I was then able to backtrack, what are the things that I need to do to become that person, and to actually carry out the things that will allow me to succeed once I become that person?

Julia Campbell: 33:20

So I step one? Okay. That's incredible. That's incredible. So thinking, Yeah, okay, that's step one. Now, go ahead. Oh, I was gonna say that is a different way of goal setting, that I think is really applicable to people looking to, you know, expand their career looking to further their career, or looking to just start and maybe a new life or try something completely different, like, really think about, not how much money I want to make, or how many employees I want to have or how I want to scale my business. But who do I want to be? What do I want to be known for? What's going to be my position? And working backwards from that, I think is really brilliant.

Sabina Gedeon: 34:01

Yeah. And so and then you, you know, you use the regular strategic planning tactics, right? Of like, okay, that's the five year plan of who I'm going to be, what am I going to be doing right? And so you think through, I think I've your plan at this point, while maybe a decade ago, like it made sense, five years, like, not that I'm trying to be a Debbie Downer, hurry, but like, anything could happen in five years, right? And so when you start to think about think it's easier to do it with the who you want to be than the what you're going to do, because there are external factors that might prevent that from happening. So I would even bring it down to maybe like a three year plan, okay, from as an organization, you know, what are we going to be doing, who are we going to be serving what is going to be our impact? Obviously, you do the mission, the vision, the values and all of those pieces. Then you identify five strategic priority that you want to achieve In between, you know, now and the next three years, and those five strategic priorities should touch on, you know, financial operations, your products and services, in this case, like, you know, donor reach partnerships, and just, you know, think about your business or your organization in those four areas, and then back it into an app's plan. Right? So now you're taking the three years, and you're going to take the first year, and you're going to break it down in four quarters. Okay, in order for me to achieve this financial goal, right, in a year, what do I need to have in place? Are my products and services priced correctly? Do I have the right amount of individuals like Who will I need to hire to support this? What skill set will they need to have? You know, especially when you're a one person shop, or even a smaller shop, you wear a lot of hats. And while that can be great for the business, and we think it's good for cost cutting, at the end of the day, if that's not your skill set, you're spending more time trying to figure the thing out versus hiring someone who has a skill set who can easily get it done. So really allowing yourself to think through who do I need on my team, and building that out? Your financial plan, obviously, you know, a year out two years out three years out, but now you can say, Okay, if this is the if this is what I'm going to be, if this is what the business is going to look like, if these are the people that I'm going to need, then you to determine the financial goals. Oftentimes, what I've seen is people start with the money, right? They're like, oh, I want to be six figures. Okay, first of all, what does that mean? What is great? What does that mean? When you actually start to, you know, add in, okay, people and tech and all this other stuff, right? Like, you're really not at six figures. So start with all of the resources first, and then determine how much you need to make to sustain that, and to be you know, in a place of profitability, or at least have some reserves aside. And then you start with a 90 day action plan, because now you've started from the very tippity top, and he's broken it down to so much. Now you can say, okay, in three months, this is what we're going to focus on in three months, whether that's, you know, identifying new donors, the generation, whatever that looks like for you, you focus on that for the three months. And then the next quarter, you focus on something else, whether that's, you know, converting those people from your your masterclasses, or your or your your galas, or whatever, it's actual donors, or, you know, you're on the business side, or the for profit business side, converting people on your email list. That's your focus for that quarter. And so you just break it down so that it's not, it's not this overwhelming thing that creates procrastination, that you know, triggers your self sabotaging behavior, and that you can actually manage it and mentally see and keep that vision that y in front of you.

Julia Campbell: 38:01

I think we will have to have you back to do an entire planning session, because I just took like three pages of notes for myself. And I'm such a huge I love planning. But I think I get stuck because I get so focused in the weeds and less about the vision. And then there's a task. There's a to do list of 75 things. But yet I'm not sure if it's getting me towards like my goals. I think that happens. I know that happens with a lot of my clients. It's like, oh, my to do list is nine pages. But only three things are actually going to move the needle on anything. So helping people focus on those things. I think that is that's amazing. So thank you. Thanks so much for being here.

Sabina Gedeon: 38:41

Sabine. I

Julia Campbell: 38:41

know you're very busy. I'd love to know more about how people can find you. I know you've got a free leadership branding guide on your websites and being Gideon comm forward slash leadership branding. Where can people find you on the interwebs?

Sabina Gedeon: 38:58

Yep. So LinkedIn is my primary playground. You can find me at in forward slash to being Gideon, also Instagram at Sabine Gideon and please do connects and you know, let me know you heard me on Julia's Awesome. Yeah, cast, and I will be happy to connect and happy to provide any additional support.

Julia Campbell: 39:19

Awesome. Alright, tag us. Let us know what you thought. Let us know how you're going to transform your own leadership skills and your own leadership perspective. Thanks so much for being here. Sabine.

Sabina Gedeon: 39:31

Thank you so much for having me. It's been an honor.

Julia Campbell: 39:41

Well, hey there. I wanted to say thank you for tuning into my show, and for listening all the way to the end. If you really enjoyed today's conversation, make sure to subscribe to the show in your favorite podcast app, and you'll get new episodes downloaded as soon as they come out. I would love if you left me a rating or review because This tells other people that my podcast is worth listening to. And then me and my guests can reach even more earbuds and create even more impact. So that's pretty much it. I'll be back soon with a brand new episode. But until then, you can find me on Instagram at Julia Campbell seven. Keep changing the world, your nonprofit unicorn