Lessons From My Coaches (A Series: Part 1) - Lessons from My Dad
(This post is one in a series: Things I Learned from My Coaches)
Getting a project finished can be so difficult. With new ideas comes new energy, new people jumping on board, and even new money so the beginning is always fun. Many times, however, the failure on a project comes not because the vision or the strategy is bad, or even because the goals were unrealistic, but because energy wains at the end and people turn down the intensity before the job is done.
“The most difficult part of getting a product to market and placed on the shelf comes in the last 10 feet.”
- Mark Pollock (My dad)
When I was a kid swimming, my coach would yell at us, “The race isn’t over until you touch the wall.” This seems logical, obvious, and reasonable enough, but when you’ve been in a race, giving your all in a 200 or 400 Individual Medley, or the 200 fly, or the 1000 freestyle, once you’re within distance of finishing, it’s always tempting to slow it down, coast, or even stop before you touch the wall.
Recently, I was a part of a capital campaign to restore an old building in Oklahoma City. The challenge was great. It was an old place – built in 1907. It had been uninhabited for some time. At one point the building had been damaged in the bomb that went off six blocks way on April 19, 1995.
A group of us wanted to restore this building so we went to work. We had no money but knew it could take up to a million dollars to get it back to useable space. Little did we know, we had underestimated the restoration costs and we discovered they were around $1.8 million. Not only that, but the debt on the building was $350,000. We were looking at a $2.1 million project!
For some reason, I wasn’t fearful or anxious about the money. There was a lot of excitement around this project and many different people came to play raising the $1.8 in less than a year! As I look back on that, I can’t believe how easy it was. (I know, I’m crazy). We were even able to raise another $200,000 towards the debt and the finish line to this marathon is in sight. All we have to do is raise just around $150,000 and we’ll be done!
But frankly, raising those final dollars, even though the race is almost over, seems insurmountable! The energy is gone. The market is ready to turn. The people are sick of pandemics.
The last 10 feet are the hardest, my dad always says. So what do you do when this dreaded monster jumps on you? How do you finish and finish well?
MAKE A PLAN, WORK THE PLAN, STICK TO THE PLAN
How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. How do you complete an Ironman? One stroke, one pedal, one step at a time. Never stop moving forward. You can rest. You can recharge (in fact, if you haven’t recharged in a while – it’s summer – time for a vacation!) But just don’t go backwards. Don’t change course. Keep moving forward, all the way to the end of the race.
In the case of my fundraising project: MAKE A PLAN, WORK THE PLAN, STICK TO THE PLAN is exactly what I did. I needed $150,000 to finish the project. Finishing would set us free financially to do so many other things we were dreaming of.
Planning helps you maintain focus until the end.
So, I started by doing basic math and considering the people I knew who had a vested interest in the project and I started asking key questions as I broke the number down into smaller bites:
· Could I get 25 people to donate $200 per month for one year?
If so, that would be a total of $60,000.
· Could I get 50 people to donate $100 per month for one year?
If so, that would be a total of $60,000.
· Could I get 75 people to donate $50 per month for one year?
If so, that would be a total of $45,000.
That totals $165,000! If all went according to plan, then the debt would be covered and then some! However, as my dad also says, “Sometimes a plan is there just so you can look back and see where you were forced to deviate from it.”
So, we created a second layer to the plan and asked:
· Was there anyone who could do this is one fail swoop?
· Could we get folks with a vested interest to do one-time Big Idea Gifts? These Big Idea Gifts are those that cause you to meet someone on their turf, to invite them into a big idea, and to call them to join you through a one-time large gift.
· Then we asked, “How do we get the low hanging fruit?”
So, we set a goal of $68,000 and asked for the following:
· Eight (8) $1,000 gifts
· Three (3) $5,000 gifts
· Two (2) $10,000 gifts
· One (1) $25,000 gift
We then made contacts with individuals, sat down with them, and made the big ask. As a result, we’re on our way to reach our goal of $150,000. Sometimes it feels like we are pushing a boulder over the crest of a mountain. But we’re almost there. Only 10 feet to go!