159 – All Paws Up for Non-Profit Creation with Carole Yuster of K-9 Reading Buddies

You're listening to gift biz unwrapped episode 159.

It was pretty much strangers just wanting to make a difference

with their therapy,

dogs, Attention gifters bakers,

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Your gift biz here is your host gift biz gal Sue

moon Heights.

Today. I am so proud to introduce you to Carol you

stir. Carol is the executive director and founder of canine reading

buddies of the North shore.

This is a nonprofit business that supplements literacy programs in suburban

libraries and schools.

They use reading teams consisting of registered therapy,

dogs, and qualified handlers to strengthen reading skills while also boosting

confidence. I think we can all understand why this is such

a worthwhile cause I'm thrilled to get into the story,

Carol, welcome to the show or thank you for having me.

So I start off in a little bit of a different

way, and that is by having you describe yourself through a

motivational candle.

So if you were to tell me what color and what

type of a saying,

or a quote would be on a candle that would really

resonate with you,

what would your candle look like?

Well, that's interesting.

You asked me because I literally have a candle burning on

my desktop right now,

and it's actually less about the color for me than it

is about the scent.

The scent is lavender and I feel motivation from the scent

of lavender,

which is why I have that burning.

I've tried vanilla before another sense,

but lavender seems to,

I don't know,

maybe it's the inner Yogi in me.

So that's what motivates me and keeps me in a heightened

state of awareness.

And it's interesting.

You asked about a quote because I have a quote that

I keep on my kitchen cabinet and I actually happened to

see it and hear it on the NBC nightly news.

About a month ago,

there was a artist who in England was putting posters of

inspirational quotes all around his city.

And people took the time to write back on his sign,

thanking him for changing their day.

And actually there was even somebody who was apparently suicidal and

reading this man's quote,

kept him from making that awful choice.

So the name of this artist is Andy leek and he

now has inspirational quotes that he posts throughout literally the world

like there,

even in Alaska.

And it wasn't actually a sign.

It wasn't actually something Britain.

It was at the end of his interview.

He said something that resonated with me.

So I wrote it down and that's my inspirational quote.

And he said,

if you do things without an agenda,

the universe pays you back in some amazing,

crazy ways.

I want just let that settle in a little bit,

but I love that because you're saying just put out the

good in the world and don't have an ulterior motive really.

And then Goodwill come back to you.

Exactly. I love that.

Do you use that in your life?

Is that kind of how you roll?

I guess all I ask?

Well, yes it is.

And the point being that probably often all heard,

if you put something out in the universe,

something good will come back to you,

but I've never actually heard it said in the way that

he said it and or you're shopping for a house and

you're getting frustrated.

You're not finding the house that you're looking for.

Don't worry.

One day the right house will present itself.

In fact,

those kinds of things have happened and do happen to me.

And I think they happen to all of us.

We just have to have the presence,

the awareness to realize when those things are happening and that

it's not just an accident.

It is by design.

Yeah. When they're happening and then take advantage of them.

Exactly. I see the opportunity and then act on it really

exactly. You and I are kindred spirits then,

because I totally believe in all of that to 100%.

All right.

So I am so curious,

Carol, and you and I met in person at a chamber

of commerce meeting and I heard about your business and we

talked a little bit and I was so excited to get

you on the show.

And I don't know if you remember what I said to

you when we met,

but it's like,

stop, stop,

stop. Don't tell me any more.

I want to wait and hear it firsthand from you.

And so that's what we'll do now.

So take it from the top.

Tell me all about canine reading buddies.

it was a total of five of us who met at

a Starbucks in the town that we live in and talked

about this vision that we had of bringing our therapy dog

teams into schools,

to support literacy programs and to motivate kids to want to

read. And at that time it was just five of us

who wanted to make a difference.

And what happened was that as we began to break ground,

and of course there's a whole story behind all of that

people, moms,

dads, who brought their kids to libraries to read to our

canine reading buddies,

wondered how they could do what we were doing.

And that first year,

all we did was make copies of sheets of information that

I had collected from a non-profit that I had worked with

prior to this group.

So to figure out how to do what we wanted to

do, we just met a couple times a month and we

talked about what happened and how to work with certain situations

at the library or with parents or with children.

And as other people became interested in what we were doing,

they wanted to do what we were doing.

we realized that we could no longer just be five people

sharing information and talking about it.

We needed to create an actual process for new people to

come on board and to have consistency and a protocol for

how to deliver our program in the professional manner that we

designed. And so we were really an accidental non-profit.

I used to call us the user foundation because it was

being funded pretty much by my family,

my husband and I,

as we grew,

we realized that we needed to become a nonprofit and it

needed to self-fund and we needed to have our volunteers actually

pay a membership so that we could continue to grow and

expand. When you were first,

just the five people sitting in Starbucks.

Were you guys friends or were you connected already because you

had registered therapy dogs.

So you were already into that interest of helping people with

therapy dogs.

That's a really good question.

Well, what happened was I had moved away for a year

and lived in Wisconsin with my family.

I had a golden retriever at the time that I had

trained and then tested to become a therapy dog.

And I volunteered with this chapter of the therapy registry that

had a reading program set up at the local library.

And that's where I got the idea that this is something

that really resonates with me.

And I participated in that program that whole year.

And when we moved back to Highland park,

there wasn't a program like that.

And I knew I didn't have time to travel to Chicago

where sit,

stay, read runs its programs,

because I had a child in school,

like a lot of us do or did,

or just,

you know,

we're busy people working during the day and don't have much

time to travel,

but want to give back.

And so I realized other people were probably like me and

wanting to do this too.

And literally,

I just began to find some of the people through the

therapy registry that live locally.

And actually one of them was somebody that I swam alongside

at the local rec center.

And so I knew her from there,

but otherwise everybody was pretty much strangers just wanting to make

a difference with their therapy dogs.

So you were getting together with them.

And so you guys decided still it was more of a,

I'm not going to say it was a hobby because clearly

therapy dogs.

I mean,

it's a serious thing when you're doing that,

but you were doing it more,

not thinking you were going to turn it into a big

business. I was not,

it was a nice thing to do with some nice people.

Yeah. In a way to give back and spend your time

in a good way,

a give back way,

if you will.

All of that.

Right. Exactly.

It was a win-win all the way around.

And at the same Time,

little, did you know you were testing the viability of the

program, right?

Exactly. So was there a trigger you were saying already the

size, there were so many people interested in doing this too,

but was there a certain point in time when you just

said, all right,

no. Now we have to put systems around it.

We have to become more professional and organized or did it

just kind of evolve to that realization?

Well, it evolved and,

but also the right people,

there you go,

the right people sort of fell on my path or our

paths in that,

my background before I became a mom and moved to Highland

park, my background was as an it training manager and consultant

Silicon Valley.

So I had the experience of setting up programs and implementing

them and creating processes and standards and structures.

So it was a natural segue for me to do that

with canine reading buddies.

What I did have the skill set to do was to

create an actual training class.

I could say what I thought should be in a class,

but I didn't know how to create one.

And then one of our team members who had a background

in instructional technology,

training and design,

so together,

we designed a class.

She knew how to make a multimedia class engaging and fun.

And I knew what needed to be in that class.

So that was one of those,

if you put it out in the university,

the universe gives back kind of moment.

Yeah, totally.

The other thing that I really like here just by way

of a demonstration for our listeners is you had different people

with different skills.

I don't know what the other three people you just described

you and this other person is part of your group,

but it's nice if you're putting something together where there's a

group of you,

that each of you bring something different to the table.

Exactly. One of our team members is,

and was she still active with us,

a certified teacher.

And she ended up going for her masters in the ESL

instruction. And along the way,

a lot of how she got to where she is,

was by having volunteered with us and being exposed to higher

Hispanic population that were struggling readers.

And that gave her the idea to move on with extra

education and get a degree.

And now she's back in school teaching,

but she still helps out with our program on weekends.

Oh, that's wonderful.

That's a great story.

You each were helping each other there for sure.

Give us a little feel for what the organization looks like

today. So today we have upwards of 50 to 60 volunteers

and what evolved was,

we started out as trained therapy,

dog teams going into schools and libraries,

but then it evolved into needing somebody to run those programs

at the libraries that when we just had one library,

I would run the program.

But now we have eight libraries.

It may come as a surprise to you,

but I can't be everywhere.

You can't you're superwoman.

Right? Exactly.

It's just,

it's not physically possible.

So now we have adult volunteers without dogs who manage our

library programs and we call them library services,

coordinators, and they manage everything that happens.

And all of the details of signing in the children and

talking with the parents and doing all the PR and making

sure that everything is running smoothly at the libraries.

So they are the point person there.

And we also added youth volunteers.

And those youth volunteers are sixth grade up through high school

who volunteer without a dog to help those library services coordinators

at the libraries.

But also they help at events that we run as do

the library services coordinators.

So their event staff,

as well as library staff,

how the youth volunteers happened was actually an interesting story because

my son was 10 years old and I would pick him

up from we're Jewish.

I picked him up from Hebrew school and I would have

him be at the library while we were running the program.

And he asked if he could read to one of the

reading buddies.

And I said,

why would you want to do that?

Because we have two golden retrievers who are reading buddies at

home. They were the first reading buddies.

And he said,

well, but it's different when you're reading in the library and

it's not to your own dog,

can I do that?

And I said,

I'd have to check.

And he said,

well, isn't this year program.

And I said,

what? That's a good point.

And I guess my boss says you can do it.

So that night he read to a reading buddy and was

really excited to read to this Leon Berger.

But that was just one night.

And the rest of the nights,

he had to keep busy while he was there.

So he wouldn't be interrupting me.

So I would give him tasks and he would be in

charge of shuttling the children to,

and from the reading buddies,

he would be in charge of taking their photo afterwards of

the child with the reading buddy.

And then he would have to make notes about what they

were wearing.

So we would make sure that we sent the right picture

by email to the right parent.

And as the years went on,

one of the kids aged out of our program from first

through fifth grade,

that's our grade school program at the library.

And after he aged out,

he still wanted to be involved.

And he asked if he could do what my son Adam

was doing,

because he wanted to do that job.

And this child was on the spectrum.

So he's a little insecure.

So he's a little shy and this was big for him.

He wanted to give back and who better than somebody who

was actually involved in the program from the beginning anyways.

And so he is still a youth volunteer with us to

this day.

He's a senior in high school.

Now we've had just numbers of youth volunteers throughout every school

year asking to volunteer with us and their parents love it

because it empowers their children.

It teaches them responsibility.

It's not just a nice to have job.

We really need their help.

And they're important.

I am so impressed with the inclusiveness of the entire program.

So now you're talking about not only the younger students,

I'll call them being participants,

but then also helping others,

helping the children who are reading to the reading buddies.

Right, exactly.

But then you've also got the people who have the dogs.

And then you also have other people who may not own

a dog or have the ability to put a pet through

the structure to be able to have them registered.

So virtually anybody who has a passion could potentially find a

space within your organization.

Exactly. I mean,

the library services,

coordinators love being around.

Children love being around the dogs and love giving back and

making a difference.

One of our coordinators,

she has been on the board of Louis children's Memorial hospital

for like 25 years.

And this is her favorite thing to do once a month.

She goes to this little one room library in Highwood once

a month.

And we just have one reading team there.

She just loves it.

And a couple of our other library services coordinators are retired

school teachers.

So they just love being around the kids and the dogs.

Oh, I love this.

So I know for sure that therapy dogs do something physically

when you're around them,

you can bring therapy dogs into hospitals just to meet with

patients for a mood elevation or something.

I also know in senior centers assisted living.

They'll bring dogs in.

Can you share with us some of the research of what

happens physically when you're around animals like this,

Carol is going to give us her answer right after a

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Certainly the truth is that just being in the same room

as a dog,

lowers blood pressure and reduces anxiety.

Even if you don't pet that dog.

So when you do pet the dog,

then your oxytocin levels go up and your stress levels go

down. It just as a naturally occurring experience.

And the result is that when people are relaxed and especially

in a situation where you have a struggling reader,

then they can focus because they're not feeling nervous.

That's actually the magic that happens.

People tend to open up more and it's not through any

kind of solicitation necessarily.

We do stress relief clinics at the high schools.

These are teenagers.

If you have a teenager in your house today,

it's hard to get your own teenager to talk to you

much less one.

You don't know.

And when you have a therapy dog at your side and

they're petting your dog,

they open up,

they tell you things that they would never normally tell you

or anybody in a public setting,

except for the fact that that dog is there.

And they're relaxed enough to just chatter away.

And oftentimes they say things in front of kids,

they don't even know.

And sometimes it's personal.

Oh my gosh.

Yeah. But again,

they all feel relaxed.

It's just something different happens when that dog is there.

It sounds kind of magical actually.

Yep. And it is.

In fact,

when I take my work breaks,

I go to my therapy dog and he's not actually a

therapy dog yet.

He's a two year old golden retriever he'll be tested,

but he provides therapy to me because the beautiful thing is

that when you are with that dog,

your dog,

there is only that moment.

If we could just learn from our dogs,

they're not thinking about yesterday and what they should have done.

They're not thinking about their to-do list today or what they

want to do when you're done petting them.

They're in that very moment.

And if we can all just be in that very moment,

we would all have a lot less stress.

I so agree with you there,

but you know,

what has just happened,

Carol, anybody who's Listening who has wanted a dog,

I think we've just convinced them.

It's time.

It's time to go out and get a dog,

whether it's for therapy or just for your house as a

pet, to have a companion.

Exactly. So you can proudly blame Carol and I,

for that,

for your renewed passion of an interest gift biz listeners of

wanting to go get a dog,

let's talk through more of the business end.

Now, was there ever a time that was really challenging and

sitting around in Starbucks,

one of my favorite places to where you are today,

any challenges that you Share with us?

Yes. And I didn't have to think very hard to bring

this one up.

When we started out,

our teams were all registered with therapy,

dogs international.

And what happened was it's a very long story that I'll

make very short.

They decided that any team registered with them could not volunteer

with any other nonprofit,

regardless of whether it was another therapy registry.

It could be there's another nonprofit reading education assistance dogs,

which actually is how I learned about how to set up

our program here.

Because I first became a reading education assistance dogs,

teen therapy dogs international would cancel your membership if you volunteered

with any other nonprofit.

So what ended up happening was my teams began to get

letters as did I,

that therapy dogs international was going to cancel our membership.

They offered me that I could,

and I got on the phone with the president or slowly

camp at the time.

And I explained to her that we are a registered non-profit

a five Oh one C3.

We do fundraising.

And that it made no sense for them to cancel our

membership. We're a literacy program that uses trained therapy,

dog teams.

We're not a therapy dog registry.

So their reason for canceling all our teams membership in mind

made no sense.

And she said to me,

well, you could become a chapter of therapy,

dogs international,

and then raise money for us,

but not be recognized as canine reading buddies at the North

shore anymore.

And, and I thought,

well, why would I do that?

I mean,

I spent all this time working on our nonprofit,

building it,

developing a reputation.

Why would I fold it and raise money for a therapy

registry? Especially since they don't have a therapy dog program,

they had a little thing.

They call it,

they put up flyers saying they had a program called wagon

tails. And it was just a one sheet piece of paper

that said in general,

what you could do,

ours is a full blown program with training,

right? It's not just a one sheet thing where people just

go out and do something,

not to disparage any of your listeners who may be doing

that. And that's fine that they're doing that because reading programs

need to be a lot of places and we can't all

be everywhere at the same time.

So however,

some of your listeners may be doing a reading program.

That's a good thing.

It's a bad thing to tell other reading programs that they

can no longer do it though,

right? That they must dissolve and desist.

So it was an extremely stressful period.

It happened during the holiday season and I was beside myself.

I didn't know quite what to do,

but I did know about other therapy registries.

So I did my research and I built a relationship with

what was called at that time therapy dogs,

Inc, same acronym,

different nonprofit.

And I spoke with the executive director that we had,

like, I don't know,

we must have had 20 something teams at that time that

were all registered with therapy dogs that are national,

that their memberships were going to be canceled,

but we had programming ongoing and we needed to keep with

our schedule.

Is there any way they could work with us to test

our teams and have them switch over all at once?

Well, our story was an old story.

They've heard it before.

They were getting a lot of new members from therapy dogs,

international therapy dogs incorporated.

Their mission is to provide testing temperament and obedience and provide

insurance for their members to go out and do therapy work.

And that could be wherever they choose to do it.

There's no strangle hold on how and who they do it

with and that's their whole purpose.

And so they were very gracious and we were able to

set up a testing for all of our teams and transition

them all at once.

And it wasn't easy and it was extremely stressful.

And I remember at the time hearing that Miley Cyrus song,

the climb,

and I would use that as sort of like my mantra,

because it seemed like an insurmountable mountain.

I didn't want to quit.

I didn't want somebody telling me it was important and we

never looked back.

And now we're all with Alliance of therapy dogs,

and couldn't be prouder.

And you made it,

I mean,

it was probably Oh,

such a rough time,

but you didn't give up.

I think that's the important thing we didn't give up.

We had to find a solution one way or another.

Exactly. There was one other time that we had a door

close in our face,

and this is something that your listeners could benefit from.

And I always tell our students when we do presentations,

that when you have a good idea,

don't take no for an answer.

Just persevere.

When we started out and approached the school district,

there was a city ordinance that prohibited dogs from being on

school property and in public buildings,

the schools wanted to use our program,

but there was this law that kept us from being used.

I worked with our city council woman to make a change

in that ordinance.

I drafted language that made an exception for registered therapy dogs

to be on school property and in public buildings for the

purposes of academic and therapeutic reasons.

And that summer,

the city council passed that exception unanimously.

So if there is a city ordinance or our law that

prohibits dogs from being on school property,

or in libraries where your listeners would like to volunteer there,

don't give up,

there is a way to make a change or for anything

else that may be standing in their way when they have

a good idea,

look for alternatives and how you can work with that.

Yeah. This is a great story because I think that we

think, okay,

there's a law,

it's over,

that's where the book closes,

but you're showing that that might not be the case.

Don't just take that at face value and say,

okay, and stop whatever it is you're doing,

whether it's therapy,

dogs, or something else that you're doing for whatever your product

is, dig deeper.

Exactly. Make sure that it's a closed door that it's just

not shut a little bit and that you can't open it

and change something don't give up on your dream.

So easily.

Both of those times,

Carol, you could have said,

all right,

insurmountable, we had a fun go at it.

And now it's over.

You could have easily done that.

Right. But you don't sound like the type to do it.

I didn't know that I wasn't the type to do it.

I didn't know.

I didn't know I had that in me at all,

but I just realized that I just knew what we were

doing, had a place and that it was the right thing

to do.

And I have a passion for it.

And all of our volunteers have the passion for it.

And I didn't know that I had that sort of,

That's a great comment,

very insightful.

We really don't know until we reach some of these things

and you probably didn't know until you got past it.

You're not sure what the outcome is going to be.

Exactly. And the other thing I think with your example is

you probably pushed forward because you had people counting on you.

Now you had teams and you were part of that group

of five or however many.

There still were at the time,

your, your original group together,

but brings up a different question for me.

We talk often about people who have partners in a business

and the challenges you can have when it's two people who

are at the helm,

running a business,

you guys had five.

Were there any challenges or is there any advice that you

could give when there are multiple people?

Maybe not everyone is the direct leader in steering the ship,

but you had a group who were moving this mission forward.

Any advice on that?

I treat everybody Collaboratively and our non-profit could not be where

it is today.

If it weren't for the insight and effort of literally every

volunteer who has been with us and continues to join us,

I can't take credit for what we have today.

It's definitely due to everybody who has been involved.

What I've always said is that always share an idea,

always share a concept with us because you can make a

difference. You can make it better.

And if people don't speak up,

we say that in our training classes,

too, that if you don't speak up,

then we're not going to improve our quality.

Let us know what we can do to improve or let

us know what you'd like to see happen.

And we've never had any conflicts.

I know it's almost like too good to be true,

right? But everybody's in it for the common good.

And everybody works together and uses their skill sets to make

a difference.

That's all I can say that we've never had anything negative

come up.

Well, it sounds like it's because everyone is really focused on

the end result.

No, one's looking at taking the glory at any portion along

the way.

Everyone's focusing on the goal of doing good.

That's exactly true.

And I'm going to point out right now,

we're moving towards this huge event that we've never done before.

It's a vision that we had some of us a couple

of years ago,

K9 pup Stratton.

The expo is May 5th at sunset,

was in Highland park and is designed to bring together.

It's celebrating 10 years as a nonprofit.

And it's designed to bring together the dog,

loving community,

the academic community and the social and emotional health community on

one place.

It is a fundraiser for us.

And again,

never did anything like this before.

It's scary,

definitely bitten off more than I could chew,

but we've got great volunteers.

They all pipe up at different moments and offer different skillsets.

It's not like we've broken down into committees.

I wish we had,

but again,

this is being run out of my home office and by

emails. So we don't have that kind of structure.

Maybe next year we will,

but this is a fundraiser for us.

And this is also for awareness to increase our resources so

that we can expand.

And the reality is that it's huge,

but it's again,

something designed to bring together.

What I think of as all our friends,

who's our friends,

it's the libraries.

It's the schools.

It's the students.

It's the families.

It's everybody in the communities that had supported us every step

of the way.

So we're going to have like,

of course,

dog themed businesses and services,

there'll be canine buddy boots where kids can read to a

therapy dog and get a complimentary photo taken.

There'll be author doing a book giveaway and doing a couple

of readings.

She wrote a book about a library dog.

And we partnered with her when she did her book launch

in the fall.

And there'll be a youth art tent where kids can color

Bucky, the dog.

That's the logo dog for the Highland park think and trust.

And as I describe it,

it's something for everybody.

There'll be pet misuses there for giving pet massages.

But then there's going to be our local therapeutic needs,

doing chair massages for people.

So it's something for everybody where everybody can share and learn.

We're going to have tutors there because what do our kids

need? They need tutors.

They sometimes need a little help and we'll have human tutors.

They're not just dog trainers there.

And groomers,

they're promoting their services for people who maybe they just moved

and they don't know what's available.

So it's something for everybody.

And that,

isn't my other big dream to just pull together the communities

all along the North shore and beyond to share information on

a beautiful may morning.

Hopefully it's warm then.

And it's all for the greater good to me.

It's a win-win yes,

it is a fundraiser for us,

but it's also to just put everybody in the same place.

They got to go out and walk their dogs.

Anyhow, why not do it with like a few hundred other

good friends?

Sure. And once again,

there's inclusion there because you're expanding this and including other businesses

who are in the area,

right? So Sandy with therapeutic needs and all the other businesses

that you described.

So, and the great thing about that too,

I'm sure you already know this,

but I'm just talking this through for our listeners as well

is everybody that you invite to participate comes with their own

followers, their own customers,

et cetera.

So in terms of getting visibility and then participation on that

day is big.

Exactly we have from the pet stores like Bentley's and Kriser's.

And I think when I met you,

we weren't even at this point,

when I first met you at the chamber meeting and pet

people is going to be there.

And then we have care,

chills, kennels at Rover's place.

So we have doggy daycare,

places there'll be there.

But then we also have with merchandise that none of us,

maybe a lot of us haven't seen before,

because they're coming from other places.

So people who are like looking for cute little dog accessories

for their dogs,

they're going to find that they're at this pet expo,

just really something for everybody.

And our author is giving away a hundred books of her

story, about a library dog.

It's called the secret room for the first hundred children.

She meets,

she's giving a brand new book.

That's so wonderful.

Oh my gosh.

What an exciting thing to look forward to?

I'm sure there's a lot of work,

you know,

an organization and all of that,

but what a great mission to do this event,

It's a lot of work,

but again,

what I'm going to say is that different volunteers of mine

pop up at different times and they say,

can I help you with this?

Or can I help you with that?

And then I tap into them.

So in that way,

as it has always been,

we're a bit organic,

but it always works out.

That's fabulous.

Now you've mentioned that you're working out of your house and

you have a lot of things in play,

right? Because you have events that you're doing,

you have the library is you have the schools,

all of this stuff altogether.

How do you keep everything organized from a home office business

practice? Well,

I'm a Virgo,

which means we're detail oriented.

That's it?

We're done.

Yeah. Enough said so.

Yeah. I don't know.

It's kind of crazy.

I think I'm just a natural multi-tasker.

But if I'm sitting in my office right now and I

do have equal sized post-it sheets all throughout my walls now

due to this event,

normally I wouldn't have it that way,

but because this event is something we've never done.

And again,

I will say,

Oh yeah,

a little bit scary,

but we do have some help with a production company helping

us and a PR firm.

Luckily they take pity on us and give us non-profit rates.

So otherwise,

you know,

this fundraiser would make us go broke.

So right now that's kind of how I do it with

these easel size post-it sheets to make sure I stay on

track in different areas.

And I just create a lot of files and label them.

And then I also recognize that I do have to shut

down after like six o'clock.

I have to stop because when,

what you do is your passion.

You actually never leave it.

It is with you 24 seven.

You think about it constantly.

And, but there is some point where you have to say,

okay, I seriously have to turn off because we're not machines.

Absolutely. Right.

You've just given us three really good points.

The first thing that I love that you were saying is

about outsourcing some of this,

but you're not the professional at putting on events,

although you're so professional and you probably could do it all

yourself, but you have everything,

all the normal everyday things that you need to do to

keep the organization running.

Correct. So outsourcing to somebody who has that skill already is

such a smart thing.

And give this listeners for you.

It might be have someone help you build your website or

have someone figure out how to put up your social media

or whatever it is,

but consider if this is not a talent that you have,

or the time outsourcing,

just even by a task,

doesn't have to be forever.

It could be just on a project basis.

Like Carol's talking about the other thing that I really liked

about what you're saying,

Carol is the post-it notes because you're getting your ideas up

where they're visible at all times and you can move them

around. So I bet that's been really helpful,

Right? So what happens when you hire a PR firm in

a production company is that they create projects for you.

And so you're suddenly thrust in an area of tasks,

doing things that you've never had to do before.

So it's quite a learning curve,

but it creates a project list then have to design so

that you fulfill on your end.

And so that describes a lot of the post-it sheets,

the easel size post-it sheets,

so that we make sure we stay on track with what

our commitments are in order to follow through on the project

that we got handed by the production company or the PR

firm. Right.

You weren't expecting that.

It sounds like,

well, yeah,

Because we we'd never done this before.

Yeah. So the thing is that with a production company,

there'll be managing all the onsite event and coordinating all of

that, but bringing in the dog team businesses and merchants and

all the relationships lands on us.

And when I say us,

that kind of usually means me,

but there's all this support systems.

So they're not here with me,

but they're there for me to call up or tap into

it as,

as my web designer.

And I will say this one thing about the website since

you brought it up,

it wasn't until this last fall.

So pretty much 11 years that we had a website up,

we had a couple of false starts and so never didn't

listen to my liking was a couple relationships that we had

a few years ago and I wanted a certain look and

feel. So I wasn't just going to put up brochure where

I really wanted a look and feel that represented us.

And finally,

I landed with the right relationship in,

I think North Carolina could be South Carolina.

So hopefully they're not listening.

Cause I might be confusing my Carolinas,

but anyways,

they are so supportive and so wonderful.

They came up with the right look and feel for us.

And we get compliments all the time and they taught me

how to work with them,

to give them the right content,

to get that look and feel.

So we're really proud of that.

It's beautiful in preparation for us talking,

I did take a peek over at the site.

It's gorgeous.

Well, thank you.

And so that's what I want your listeners to know that

don't be in a rush.

You feel you're there now you do exist with your product.

And we existed for 11 years and it feels like you're

not really on the map until you have your website because

people always say,

Oh, so what's your website and you feel bad because you

say, well,

I don't have one,

but it's better to say,

I don't have one than to say you have one,

but inside you feel like it's not one that you can

stand behind.

It's not one that you're proud of.

I recommend waiting until you get the one that you'll be

proud of,

But don't wait too long.

Right. 11 years is too long.

I feel like everybody needs their website.

And you know,

for credibility too,

because what do people do if they're not sure of an

organization, they're going to go look at the website,

but if you don't have one online,

it could bring up questions.

Exactly. And then your point about free time,

boy, can you teach me how to do that?

Because I am not good at that,

but I know how important it is.

Just taking time walking away.

And you're so much better when you come back,

when you do walk away for a little while,

all right.

If someone,

maybe it's not doing exactly what you're doing,

but someone's on the brink of thinking,

all right,

maybe I can start this vision that I had for a

business. Maybe it's doable.

What would you say to someone who's just on the edge

and needs that little push to get started?

I would say to them that really have to believe in

yourself. And you have to believe in your mission because if

you do,

nothing will stop you and just to persevere.

And the other thing is a quote from one of those

motivational signs that a lot of us have had over the

years to stay the course.

Sometimes you have to make waves and don't be afraid to

do that.

Don't be afraid,

just dive in.

Perfect. Have a plan,

but dive in.

Yeah, love that.

So Carol,

we have been talking about things,

just aren't a coincidence and the law of attraction and all

of that.

And that leads me right into my final question for you,

which is a dare to dream question.

I want to present you with a virtual gift.

It's a magical box containing unlimited possibilities for your future.

So this is your dream or your goal of almost unreachable

Heights that you would wish to obtain.

Please accept this gift and open it in front of all

of us right here.

What is inside your box?

Well, my box contains therapy dogs at every school to help

every child who needs it.

I just think that would have a huge impact because these

children grow up.

They grow up to run our country and to run our

businesses. And up until second grade kids learn to read.

But after third grade they read to learn.

So if they can't read we're all in trouble.

So if we could have therapy dogs at all the schools

to support all the kids and reduce their anxiety so that

they could focus and read,

I think our world would be a better place.

Beautiful. I've got to tell you while you're saying that all

I see is a box opening up and all of these

cute, adorable puppies jumping out and I'm taking every single one

of them.

There you go.

Really? So,

all right.

If you could tell us one place online where you would

direct someone,

if they want to know a little bit more about the

business, whether it's your Facebook page or website or wherever,

what would you say right here for people who are just

listening? I would say go to canine rpns.org.

That's K as in canine.

So K the letter nine,

the number are BNS as in reading buddies of the North

shore. So K9 rpns.org

and just take a look around good pictures,

good information.

Not too wordy,

whether you're just interested in what's involved or how you could

be a volunteer or what did those youth volunteers do anyways?

All your answers should be there.

Perfect. Perfect.

And give biz listeners.

You also know there's a show notes page.

I'll have all their other information there.

Facebook links,

et cetera.

So just jump over to give biz unwrapped and you will

see Carol's show notes page there.

Carol. I'm so glad we got this together.

I know you're so busy with your event coming up.

We were kind of going back and forth as to whether

we could get this in.

Thank you so much for taking the time.

Really, really good and solid business skills that you've talked with

us about in terms of strategy and planning and working as

a team.

I really appreciate your business expertise and you sharing it with

all of us.

Well, it's been my pleasure.

Thank you for having me there.

You have a gift biz listeners.

If you have ever thought of turning a passion of yours

into a nonprofit,

Carol has really delivered the goods,

overcome obstacles and really built something great.

Speaking of great.

I cannot wait to share with you our episode for next

week. If you have been looking at getting into corporate landing

big accounts from companies,

you've just had your eye on and felt that there was

no way you could possibly get in and talk with them

and actually get the business.

You do not want to miss what's up next week.

I'll see you.

Then This episode is all wrapped up,

but fortunately,

your gift biz journey continues.

Are you eager to learn more?

Our gift biz gal has a free download just for you.

Head over to gift biz on-ramp to.com/twelve

steps to get your copy of the 12 steps to starting

a profitable gift biz don't delay,

head over to gift biz,

unwrapped.com/twelve steps today.