Kevin Stafford 0:00
Hey, Kevin here with a quick message. Before we get into the episode about, I would say maybe halfway through my chat with David today, there was a little bit of internet connectivity issues. I noticed it on his video, which obviously you aren’t seeing, but I did, there was a little bit of choppiness to his connection. Now, there are some words dropped as he’s speaking about his business, and his coaching approach and how he works with nonprofits and NGOs, his framework, etc. And there’s a couple of moments where you lose just enough to maybe lose the thread of what he’s saying. But it does not last very long. And it comes back on loud and clear. And he really does, he really does tie everything together beautifully. So I just wanted to give you that heads up that there’s just round in the middle of the podcast, there’s a 90 seconds, maybe two minutes or so, where you might be dropping a word here or there. But rest assured the message comes through loud and clear, in my opinion. And I hope you very much enjoyed this episode. And if you do, please make sure to let David know on on LinkedIn and on Facebook and let us know on all of our social media profiles, leave a comment all that all that good stuff, you know what to do about a podcast episode anyway, wanted to give you that heads up, enjoy, and I will talk to you soon. Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the conversations with coaches podcast. I’m your host Kevin and today I’m I’m delighted and truly grateful to be able to share some time and spend some time getting to know and share with you, David Morrison. David became an entrepreneur at around 30 And he has not looked back. He loves helping people serve their communities yoga and all things baseball, which is one of my one of my foundational sports. Some of my earliest memories with my dad in particular were of watching baseball together. So we have at least that part in common. And in his own words, he quote rolls through life in a wheelchair, which I thought was just a delightfully light hearted way to speak to your to who you are and your circumstances and how you know, a key aspect of who why you are, who you are and who you become. So David, first of all, thank you for being here today. Thank you for sharing time and talking with me today. I’m excited to get to know you a little bit better.
David Morrison 2:06
I’m so worth forever. What was your wonderful Well, let’s,
Kevin Stafford 2:12
let’s begin use where we usually begin sort of at the beginning of not your entire journey. But of course it will encompass that but begin with your journey as a coach, how you discover that that was the way you wanted to impact the world. That was the way you wanted to serve people and serve their communities. How did you discover or realizing that realize that coaching was the thing that you wanted to do or a thing that you wanted to do a way that you wanted to contribute?
David Morrison 2:40
No. So let me take a step back and put things in context for the audience, I coach nonprofit organizations specifically. And I like to say that the reason I became a coach is because I had experience first. And then without experience, I just I knew that I wanted to share knowledge with others. So most people tend to go get their degree first, and then go out into the world and get their practical experience. I was in buying, on the other hand, at the ripe age of 18. For love now one, but two nonprofit organizations. So I get there three years, and what that experience is like, and it’s a whirlwind. Let me tell you, we took off and and I assisted in, in raising over $2 million for one of these projects. And mind you we had a number of positive relationships. We had all the donors we can potentially ask for. But there were some challenges to mainly we started in 2008, which if you recall was during an economic downturn. So we saw a lot of resistance to the idea of bringing awareness to people with disabilities and like and so through that experience, I realized that working directly for an organization was it going to be a monumental challenge? I had the personal expertise, I saw brutal underground, doing the true work that it takes to run and. And so I decided to go back to school, got my master’s degree in public administration with a focus in random sprint, to the chagrin of my parents I. Because they were not happy to see me go straight into grad school, we, we survived, it was the new effort. And upon graduating in 2017, I immediately decided on one to coach others, and share those experiences with the world.
Kevin Stafford 6:13
Lovely, lovely, I love, I love I love your journey through your journey of discovery, the way that I feel like a lot of coaches have have a similar story to you, where they really what they learned about coaching, they learned just by experience, whether they were already in a different career or a different field, or whether they caught the bug early, whether they realized, like you did very, very young that, oh, this, this, I want to work in this field, I want to impact the world in this way. And I love that you discovered so early that and got the opportunity to explore and to really like throw yourself into the world of nonprofits, of nonprofits, and how that how powerful and impactful that can be to serve communities, both in need and also in need of, you know, continued awareness and growth. And you just you threw yourself into it, and then got to a point where you know what, now I have the opportunity and the time, I’m gonna go back to school, I’m going to get that training. And I love that, like, it’s sort of the reverse of what so many people think happens as they find their passion, and they really pursue it, and move through their life. But I feel like I mean, ultimately, you arrive at the same location, you have the skills and the training, and you have the experience and you have the passion and you put it all together in a way that really allows you to to impact the why keep coming back to impact to impact the world impact communities and impact individuals the way that you want to
David Morrison 7:32
lovely definitely does some work today my middle name because they truly believe that in this world to have an impact. Like yourself, I’ve had plenty of opportunity to do that.
Kevin Stafford 7:56
Lovely. I liked the idea of David impact Morris and it makes you almost makes you sound like a boxer. No pun intended with you know, the boxer. Boxer mediate. I didn’t mean to do that. But as soon as you said that, it’s like it took some have said impact is my middle name. I was like, oh, that’s actually a pretty good, that’s pretty good nickname. I like that. Let’s, uh, let’s talk a little bit about I mean, I mean, obviously, your journey began a long time ago, and you are where you are today. Let’s talk about your coaching business, your consulting business today and what that looks like, I like to ask this question as kind of a two parter because I feel like it gets at gets at the whole reason for what you’re doing. Who Who do you coach who do you focus on coaching and serving and that that could be a particular particular age group or demographic, a particular industry or industries, particular like professional, you know, sort of corporate ladder ladder level, whereas some people will work with middle management’s and people focus on executives, and C suite executives, and people focus on different areas of a career different locations on a ladder, so to speak. So who do you coach? And how do you coach them? What’s your primary or preferred methodology? Do you largely work one on one? Do you work a lot with group coaching and teams? Do you do any sort of like coursework? Have you written a book? Or are you going to write a book? I feel like I asked that question with a smile on my face every time because I feel like almost every coach either already has written a book is writing a book or one’s about to come out, you know, so basically, who do you coach who do you serve? And how do you serve them today?
David Morrison 9:32
So let me drill down a little deeper so I mentioned like, specifically like Oregon on human services organizations, and because of the plethora of non governmental orange shins in my region I’ve read He needs to get even more specific with that, only to work with startups to end the war. So they have to be at least five years old or younger, to qualify for my services. Typically note on an individual basis, as we mentioned, and do run workshops in for local community ologies. Those are separate revenue streams. My coaching business specifically, is usually on an individual basis. Sometimes, if an organization is a little more established, I’m maybe working with a small board of directors to develop their governance model, or something like that. But that’s a very rare occasion, most of my work to focus on the beginning in the form, and the development of a structure behind the nonprofit and into a lot of conversations about our youth. That nonprofit is the pathway for you in we’re talking a very high level conversation with a lot of these rituals. In typically, my goal is to have them readings, to have them take some time to absorb what we’ve talked about. And then they may come back and say, Oh, we’re ready to do this. What do we need to do? How do we put together our board? Do we need to start writing those sub questions? That’s an ongoing process. It’s not as if I have one meeting with a client, then we’re done. Usually, it’s over the course of several conversations, and we develop a relationship. And that’s really why I love what I do is I get to see their ID.
Kevin Stafford 12:57
It’s lovely. The way the way you describe your approach, I mean, I can I have no personal experience with with NGOs and nonprofits and so but what I do know is that it or at least what I can tell, certainly from our conversation is that there are so many details, there’s so much that goes into structuring things and doing things right and that your role. And as you can tell, you can see this is by like one glance at your LinkedIn profile you have, you have the consultant hat and the adviser hat and the coach hat. It’s really like your your approach is very much a hybrid of you have the frameworks, you have the expertise and the understanding of the real details like like you were saying, the boots on the ground, like you have to get these 27 things dialed in, here’s how you do it. And you have a plan that comes with that. And you stick with these these people who you’re advising who you’re coaching, and you go back and forth, and you kind of develop an understanding not only of the specific tactics that have to be approached and executed, but also the strategy behind launching a successful nonprofit launching a successful NGO, and everything that goes along with that. So there’s it seems like your approach is very much a hybrid of what some people might call advising or consulting and a real sort of coaching relationship where you walk through together with them and guide them to where they want to go.
David Morrison 14:17
It definitely is. If I could speak for them, the reasoning behind that. And those because writing a nonprofit is not easy. Client stuff understand from we’re here to get through we’re going through this process that is coaching out in your in the world. Doing good. That same cycle of okay to check in with my board. I need raised funds to have a relationship with my My constituents, all those things are going to continue even when I’m no longer involved. And I feel like the client needs to be aired for all of those situations. And so I’ve been told numerous times that my approach is, is methodical and sometimes too intense for folks. But I stick by their lie every reason for, for doing it, the way that we go through the process, and most the time, they’re gonna come out as a stronger nonprofit.
Kevin Stafford 15:52
I’m so glad you said that. Because that comes up sometimes in some of my conversations with some coaches, but I don’t think it comes up enough. It’s going to be hard. The process is going to be rigorous, you’re not there to just make people feel good about things and then leave and watch them fall apart behind you, you’re coming in to serve, you want these people to succeed, you care about their success from the jump, and so you’re going to do you’re going to help them to do what it takes. And sometimes it’s going to be hard. Sometimes it’s going to be very rigorous, sometimes the discipline is going to be very strict, and you’re going to have to do a lot of things in a very particular order in order to find success. And I think it’s, I think it’s good to shine more of a light on that. Because I think people understand that things, you know, they have some level of understanding that the work will be difficult, but sometimes they don’t know how difficult or in what way it will be difficult for them. And that I feel like for in my experience, and in my personal strong opinion, that’s one of the greatest benefits of having a coach like you is that you’re there as sort of an outsider, but and with tremendous expertise. And though you’re an outsider, you care, you have come to care you have come to serve, you have come to help because it matters to you, you’re passionate. And so you really do get the best of all possible worlds in this relationship. And again, in my opinion, I’m sort of speaking, speaking on behalf of your future clients, I just I love that you that you don’t shy away from the fact that the work will be challenging, and it will be difficult and it will be worth it. And that you hold that standard for yourself and for your clients. I just I admire that greatly.
David Morrison 17:31
And I came into this industry with the idea that those are the two need the most there are plenty of nonprofit with much higher budgets, and much larger boards out there that understand the word that they do. And that we we can all have our own peace of impact in this world. But it’s those folks who really have no sense of where they’re do fall in the spectrum. Those are the people that I’m really trying to
Kevin Stafford 18:29
lovely, I can’t think of a better a better note to end that part of the conversation on because at that’s perfect I do. I want to make sure that people know where to find out more about you. And this is my this is my final. My final two part question. I always try to pack a lot of a lot of information into my questions, as you can see, where can people if they want to just learn more about you and your work? Who you are what you do, why you do it. They just want to learn more? Where can they best go to find that out? And if it’s different, where can they go? Or what can they do to connect with you if they want to reach out start a conversation and start a relationship with you.
David Morrison 19:05
So you mention one thing, and I realized you’re doing because that’s pharma a place where people can both learn more and connect with me. I’m very active on LinkedIn. And we have Facebook age, as well. Do you have Morrison consulting? Or is enough finder in both places?
Kevin Stafford 19:41
Excellent. Excellent. Well, David, impact, David impact mortgage and thank you. Thank you for sharing a little bit of time with me today. I’m really I’m really grateful to get a chance to get to know you and I’m more grateful to get a chance to share you and your work and your reason and your passion for why you do the work that you do. with my audience, and I hope at some point in the future, we’ll all I can have you on again, I would love to, I would love to keep the conversation going and maybe check in with you later on in the year, maybe as we’re getting closer to the end of 2023. And see, see where things are at and how things are going. Then if that sounds good to you, I really enjoyed our time together, and we’d love to talk to you again.
David Morrison 20:20
There’s so much it’s been a great conversation, and I really appreciate it.
Kevin Stafford 20:26
No, thank you, David, and to the audience, I hope I hope you got a at least a piece of what I got out of this. I highly, highly, highly recommend that you connect with David on LinkedIn. It’s like Like he said, he’s he’s very active there. And pretty much that’s the place you want to start. If you want to just get to know anything about David, his work, his journey, his passion, his impact, his reason for doing what he’s doing, quite frankly, just do yourself a favor and connect with them. You won’t regret it. You won’t be sorry. Thank you for listening. Thank you for being with us today. I’m always grateful that you’re listening to us, and we’ll get a chance to talk to you again here on the podcast very very soon.
