393. Thriving in Transition: Principles of Building + Scaling Organizations - Brian Joseph

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Overview

Meet Brian. He’s the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of RevJen Group, a social enterprise dedicated to empowering nonprofit leaders and their organizations. Through revenue capacity-building workshops, facilitated peer groups, and community membership, RevJen amplifies the impact of leaders in the social sector. Brian is bringing his more than 20 years of experience and unique insights on building and scaling successful organizations to the podcast. Tune in for this conversation about what’s possible for nonprofits as they scale while still sustaining the people and the finances to do more good in the world.

💡 Learn

Principles of Building + Scaling Organizations
Capacity Building Resources
Creating Nonprofit Human + Financial Sustainability

Today’s Guest

Brian Joseph, CEO + Co-Founder, RevGen

“If a manager or leader is burned out, over 70% of the staff feels the same.”

— Brian Joseph, CEO + Co-Founder, RevGen

Episode Highlights

Brian’s story and journey to where he is today (2:00)
Building + Scaling organizations throughout his career (4:20)
Capacity Building (9:30)
5 key elements to a revenue infrastructure (12:00)
Root causes of revenue challenges (16:00)
Back to basics for organizations and how your team can enter this conversation (19:30)
Nonprofit human and financial sustainability (24:00)
Peer groups (31:00)
A powerful story of philanthropy in Brian's life (36:00)
Brian’s One Good Thing: Keep doing what you’re doing. You’re doing great work. (39:00)
How to connect with Brian and RevGen (41:00)

5 Key Elements of revenue infrastructure

Identify your revenue model (today and the next 1-3 years)
Revenue strategy (What are the people, processes and systems in place?)
What skill sets do I need on the team?
Resource allocation (When 100 pennies come in the door, how do you allocate them?)
Revenue culture (you have a revenue culture whether you like it or not. How do we draw a line between our revenue team and our programs?)

Episode Transcript

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POWERFUL QUOTES

“One of the core philosophies I’ve always had with me is that regardless of the organization, nothing happens until something is sold.” -Brian

“If you’re not embarrassed by your first prototype you’re thinking the wrong way.” -Brian

“Fear too often drives us to not move fast enough and try things and do stuff.” -Brian

“In startup mode and as an entrepreneur we have to have the flexibility and freedom to fail.” -Brian

“The thing that I don’t think we talk about enough is how incredibly lonely and tough it can be as well.” -Brian

“How do we continue to re-energize and be resilient to move forward?” -Brian

“The sector is shifting now more than ever.” -Becky

“Those 5 elements give a leadership team a common framework and a common language. It sets the stage for a solid foundation.” -Brian

“It's constant vigilance. Every day you make choices with revenue and capacity building.” -Brian

“We always want to focus on programs. When it comes to revenue, it is scary and hard, but it becomes less scary and hard the more intentional you are about leaning into it.” -Brian

“If a manager or leader is burned out, over 70% of the staff feels the same.” -Brian

“You are not alone, and together we will figure it out.” -Brian