Ep 288 | Encouraging Curiosity with Donors and Your Community with Emily Aborn

If we aren't curious, we aren't learning. Curiosity breeds energy and creativity in your organization and within your team. In this episode we dive into the fascinating world of curiosity marketing with the brilliant Emily Aborn. Emily shares her insights on how we can use curiosity to better connect with our audiences, both online and offline. Whether you're a nonprofit, small business, or just someone who wants to have more engaging conversations, this episode is packed with practical tips and strategies you won't want to miss.

What you'll learn:

→ What curiosity marketing is and how it can benefit your organization
→ The four different types of curiosity and how to tailor your approach for each
→ Practical ways to incorporate curiosity into your marketing and team culture
→ How to build trust and encourage more meaningful conversations
→ Tips for refreshing and revamping your existing content and resources

Want to skip ahead? Here are key takeaways:

[03:34] Curiosity marketing is about opening a gap between what someone knows now and what they want to know. It is an opportunity to dive deeper into a topic, learn and figure out things you didn't even know you needed to know.
[08:34] There are four main types of curiosity: problem solver, fascinated, empathizer, and hard to reach. Understanding your audience's curiosity type can help you connect with them more effectively.
[15:01] Tapping into the curiosity of your audience and potential audience can lead to higher conversions. Using questions, stories, and everyday language can help create curiosity and engagement, rather than just pushing information at your audience.
[22:06] It's important to stand up for relevant issues and not try to be everything to everyone. This can help build deeper relationships with the right people.
[27:25] Curiosity also has a place in the workplace. Fostering a culture of curiosity within your team, by asking different types of questions, can lead to better collaboration and understanding.

Full Transcript

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
We talk a lot about asking questions, getting curious, and really thinking about who the people are that we're connecting with, and how can we connect with them in a way that they care about, not just what we care about, but what they care about. And so that is what we're talking about today in this episode of the digital marketing therapy podcast, curiosity marketing, which isn't necessarily a term that I have heard a lot, but when Emily explains it, it's something that we definitely all should be incorporating into our marketing, and that you might already be doing now. But it's not just about the marketing. It's about how do we kind of build this into our team culture as a whole, so that we can better connect with people online and offline, and encourage conversation, encourage engagement with our community and with donors. Emily Aborn writes for a living, and even she sometimes struggles to write for herself or about herself, don't we all, as a copywriter, podcaster and content marketing consultant, Emily helps small business owners overcome the blinking cursor of Noom by taking writing, website, copy, blogs, emails and other marketing materials off their plate entirely. An entrepreneur for over a decade, Emily has experience in over 110 industries, and has guided 1000s of nonprofits and businesses to find their voice, make their impact and connect with those who need them most. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband Jason and their dog, Clyde, and enjoys game nights hiking in a stack of emotional support books on her nightstand. We have such a fun conversation. It went by so fast. All of a sudden we realized our time was up. But I think you're gonna love this conversation, because we really just talked through tangible ways to think about the types of people you're talking to, and how to better connect with them and encourage more conversation. The more conversation you have, the more you know about potential donors, the easier it is to get that check and to get repeat gifts, because you know you've made a real relationship with them, and you've made a real connection that you're giving them the information that they want and not what they don't want. So I think you'll enjoy this conversation. But before we get into it, it is brought to you by our free resources at the First Click. We have a lot of amazing free downloadables for you to access, covering everything from your website to video to fundraising to self care, and you can grab them all at thefirstclick.net/resources, they're all the way at the bottom of the page, but I think you'll find some resources that can really help support you where you're at in your organization. Now. Don't go downloading them all. Pick the ones that are going to help you with where you're at right now. So with that, head on over to thefirstclick.net/resources. See what's there. And let's get into the episode.

Intro
You're listening to the digital marketing therapy podcast. I'm your host, Sami Bedell-Mulhern. Each month we dive deep into a digital marketing or fundraising strategy that you can implement in your organization. Each week, you'll hear from guest experts, nonprofits, and myself on best practices, tips and resources to help you raise more money online and reach your organizational goals.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
Hey, friends, please join me in welcoming Emily Aborn to the podcast. Thanks for being here today.

Emily Aborn
Thank you so much for having me. Sami, I'm so excited to be here.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
Yeah. So Okay, let's talk about curiosity marketing, because I think when we hear the term, it might be new to us, and we might have our own feelings about what that means. But what is curiosity marketing to you? How did you kind of stumble into this? Why is it so important to you to share with the world?

Emily Aborn
So let me tell you the story of how I discovered curiosity marketing, and then I'll define it for you so that we can kind of get on the same page about our definitions. So the way I kind of bumped into it is I was actually taking this nine month SEO course. And over the process, there was homework, there was a lot of homework. And over the process of that nine months, we would choose something each month that we would talk about on blogs, podcasts, episodes, emails, like it, all had to be aligned. So sometimes I would go really granular and do things like, you know, repurposing, or I might do podcast guesting, or I might do podcast hosting. So I would pick, like, real specific things like that. And sometimes I would choose very big words like visibility or intuition or curiosity. So one month, I chose curiosity, and as I started researching curiosity, I realized that, oh, we're using curiosity techniques in our marketing, in our writing, in our written and verbal communication, in our relationships, all the time. So that kind of opened up this whole world to me on what is curiosity marketing? How can I use it, to engage my listeners, to engage my readers, to invite my curious, my community in rather than kind of shut those things down? So to define the term like, I'm not going to give you the perfect definition, but I'll give you a Emily definition. Curiosity marketing is basically. Whenever you're able to open up a gap between what someone knows now and what they want to know. So think of curiosity as like, instead of like pushing someone to something or pushing something at someone, you're pulling them in. You're sort of like inviting them to take the next step. So think of like, the last thing you were curious about, right? And like, you're just like, oh, I have to turn the next page, or I have to go research that problem, or I have to ask that person that question, because I want to know what makes them tick. So those are just different ways it can show up. But it's always like, kind of inviting you to lean in and say, like, go on.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
I love that. Well, I think from the fundraising standpoint too, like it's such a cool concept to have that in your marketing, because we should be doing that as fundraisers, in our conversations with one on one folks. Anyway, we should be asking more about them, learning about them, learning about their motivation, so that we can provide answers to their curiosity and know that we're the right fit. So you're almost just, it's kind of like a different version, maybe, of like inbound marketing from but like, really more on a messaging connection kind of level. If that sounds correct to you, yes,

Emily Aborn
that's 100% and I think one, one good thing to know is there are different types of curiosity, and it's going to show up for your for different organizations differently. So I'm going to just walk there are four technical types of curiosity, and I think this is helpful, because both your community is going to be in a certain place, and you as the organization might also be in a certain place, and you have to know what that is. So the first one is problem solver. This is the person that like they will be curious about every fact, every piece of information, every resource they need to solve a problem. So you can see how you would use, like, Okay, I have to speak to the problem that they're facing to get them curious right. Then there's like the fascinated. And this is kind of like the person, I think of is like the multi passionate. They're just like, every fact, every piece of information, every piece of art, like they're just curious, curious about it all. Like they just want to know everything about anything. And their their knowledge tends to be like, very vast, but also very like, not concentrated on any one thing, right? And this might be a lot of your nonprofits ideal community members, because they're juggling a lot of things right? Like, maybe they have multifaceted lives, and so to kind of bring them in with curiosity, you have to speak to one of those facets. The other one is the empathizer. And I sort of get the impression from our beginning conversation in the green room, if you will, that this might be you, but this is a person who's just really, really curious about other people and, like, what information they have, what makes them tick, how we're alike, how we're different. Like, it's all of that kind of interpersonal, social, psychological stuff that's really fun. And then the fourth one is hard to reach, and I they're probably not listening to your podcast, but this is, this is the or mine. This is the avoider. And they just tend to be a lower, like, they're very low on all the curiosity scales. And they don't tend to go actively look for something. They kind of like, are waiting for it to come to them. So those are the different four types. And I think it's just helpful for us to know, like, oh, as an organization, or as a business owner or as a brand, I'm this, and my ideal clients are this. So I might need to, like, think about talking in a different way to them. So that's just like, I like to set that stage because it gives you a place to go

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
well. And I love that because, so it brings me back to a practical daily experience in my life, and that my husband is very much a why person so, like, if or approve it, right? So if somebody says, like, hey, the sky is blue, even though he can see it, he'll be like, Well, tell me why it is and prove that that's true, right? Like he wants to know the why, whereas I'm more like, oh, okay, yeah, I can see that I believe that, like I feel good about our relationship, like I trust that you're telling me what you mean, and we can move forward with this relationship. So it's really interesting, even in our own household, like when we make our own buying decisions, like what he scrutinizes versus what I do is very different in how we kind of move through that world and the organizations we want. And I think at the end of the day, for nonprofits, when you're dealing with these types of curiosity, it's very much tied to trust building, right? Like, how can you build trust with these different personality types in order or curiosity types in order to get them to do the action you need them to do. Yeah,

Emily Aborn
because you're so right, some people are going to be that more Fact Finder. I need the stats. I need the data. I need the information. It's funny, I I fall between problem solver and empathizer. Those are like my top two. So I'll often like, like, people are my most important. Thing. But when I'm trying to solve a problem, like, do not get in my way, I will find every fact and information and like, I must fix the problem, and I can't rest until it's done. The other day, I was in the Co Op, like a local food Co Op, and where there you can round up right now and donate to the food bank. And I was like, oh, I want to do that, but first I want, I needed to know the information on, like, first I need to make sure my donation is going to the right place, right and like, when is it going to be delivered to them? And then, how much money have you raised so far? And am I able to see how much you raised this year over last year? And the lady just looked at me and she's like, don't worry. There's a sign by the door with all the staff. I was like, okay, so you can see how it does. It does help you to like, of course, the empathy was what got me like that inter you know, I want to help the people, and I also want to know the information and make sure that dollar is going to the right place.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
Yep, so good. Whereas I would have just been like, Yeah, that's fine Roundup, because I'm just like, that's cool. Not that anyone is better or worse. So that leads me to, you know, if we're a smaller organization and we're kind of dealing with limited resources or already struggling with our marketing and our messaging, I hear four different types of curiosity now I'm immediately like, now I have to create four different messages and try to reach out to people. So you said earlier, matching who we are and matching that with who our ideal people are. So how do we kind of start to navigate through that process so that we can understand how to actually include this curiosity into our marketing without kind of feeling overwhelmed or confusing all of the people?

Emily Aborn
Great question, and actually, I wouldn't say we should try to speak to all the people at one time. I would actually really encourage people, no matter what you're writing, no matter what you're doing, to focus on just one person at a time. When, before Sammy and I hit record, I asked her, like, paint the picture for me of your perfect listener. And like, the good news is I have a client very similar to that listener. And so like, in my mind, she is the only person I'm thinking of. So in doing that, you actually get to be more universal. Like, let me give you, let me give you a tangible example. If I tell you to imagine, like, biting into an apple, it doesn't I don't know what your brain is doing. I don't know how that experience was for you. I don't know what kind of apple you chose, but if I tell you to imagine biting into, like, just a slightly too tart, it's just like, oh, a little tart granny smith apple. You can actually, like a lot of listeners, will feel this. Their cheeks will actually start to pucker up a little bit, and you might salivate. So like being really specific in who you're speaking to can actually be beneficial for you. So when you're using these be specific in just focusing on one person at a time, like if you're writing a fact based one and you're just giving facts and stats, focus on that right? If you're writing to somebody who you know, you're speaking to their hearts and you're tugging on those empathetic strings. Speak to that. If you're trying to raise awareness to solve a problem, speak to that.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
Yeah, well, and what I love about that is, as you start to dive into this, and as you start to create content for these different areas of curiosity and get specific. Your audience will tell you who they are, so then you know where to double down, right like you'll the data will tell you where you should be playing when you're starting to test these different types of messaging and styles of communication,

Emily Aborn
yes, 100% and listen when they tell us, yeah, that isn't that's the number one way to be more curious, honestly, is just listen to what people are telling us and asking them questions about what matters most to them. So that's like relationship 101.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
Yeah. Okay. So a lot of organizations tend to talk very us forward. We're talking about us and all the amazing work we're doing. We're telling you all of the things, we're giving you all the stats we're doing, all the data, whatever, whatever. And in our online communication or in our marketing, we're not inviting, really our audience to be curious with us. We're just kind of speaking at them. We're using a lot of jargon. We're using a lot of industry terms. So how can we maybe kind of shift in our minds, kind of opening the door for people to reach out. I mean, we need to invite the curiosity in our one on one conversations, but in the online space, how can we kind of encourage that engagement, and encourage that back and forth conversation so that they do ask more questions, and they do feel like we are a space where they can kind of come in as they are and learn what they want to learn about. So

Emily Aborn
a couple ideas on this, and I love this questions, like one of my favorite one is like opening with a question or some sort of statement or fact or piece of information that kind of hooks them in. And I really don't like the term hook, but it works. Because it really does, like, grab there well,

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
but you mean hook with authentic, authenticity. We're not talking about hook for a click bait to get clicks, right? Yes,

Emily Aborn
yes, exactly. But asking a question is a good one. Like, have you ever considered Bucha, right? Or is it important to you that you know who, like, weirdly, does? This is not a nonprofit, but they do a really good job of this is Airbnb. Like those commercials tell you exactly what your issues are with a hotel. They tell you exactly what your issues are with, you know, a generic stay. And then they show you how much better Airbnb is. They're so good at it, but they they wrangle you in with, like, that kind of like, hook. Like, have you ever, you know they're, they're painting a picture for you. Have you ever experienced this? You're like, yes, every hotel I've ever been to. So that's one way to do it. Is, like, asking a question. It it some depending on the brand. Like, it doesn't even need to be a relevant question. Like, that's where I like personality and humor a little bit, and like sharing your your fun facts. But let's put that aside, because that's more of like a personal brand thing. The other one is using stories so like real like one thing when I'm so I work for a local like trauma initiative or raising awareness about, like, trauma resources in our community, and one thing we love to do is share stories of organizations locally and like what they're actually doing in the community. And I think that's such a good one. It's not all about us, right? It's not just like, here's what we're doing as a community. We're like, now shining the spotlight on somebody else and telling their story. And I think that's a good one. Like, make them the hero, right? Make somebody else the hero, and put them in a positive light. And then the other one you talked about this, and I think this is so important, is just not over complicating with jargon and language. Like, I can't even stress it enough, but some people don't even know, like, what a copywriter is, right? I think it's like that little c at the bottom of the website, right? So, like, using everyday vernac, I'm gonna use a big word now, but vernacular, like everyday language that people can understand. So that means we just have to know who our reader is and know who our audience is. Some people are gonna want the complex language, and we have to know that like you're gonna speak to a scientist, perhaps differently than you might speak to somebody at home caring for their family. So

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
yeah, well, and we always say like, write and interact at a sixth grade level, not because your audience is incapable of understanding something, but because there's so many messages coming at us, we need to be able to distill it as quickly as possible. If I have to read something and really process it and think about it and, like, try to figure out what it means. Like, you've lost me, but if I can get it in like, two seconds, okay, now I'm inviting myself into okay, maybe I do want to learn a little bit more, right? Which is, I think exactly what you're saying. The example that I can share is I have a client who gets mad at me all the time for some of my messages, and it's because they're like, well, that's not what we do. That's very that's a very simplistic version of what we do. And I was like, I get that. But what we're trying to do is not tell everybody what we're doing. We're trying to get them to say, oh, that's kind of cool. I get how that can be helpful. I want to learn. I want to learn more, and I think that's exactly what you're saying here is we don't need to share everything all at once with all the people. We need to really get specific and invite them to be curious about what we're doing and have that engagement that and that continued conversation. I

Emily Aborn
want to give a really tangible tool for anyone that does struggle with that, speaking to that way over people's heads, so that you can use an AI tool. And there are lots of tools out there that will show you what grade level you're writing at. And I really would echo what you said, like sixth grade is ideal. But I had a client who she was, I think the the technology told me was grade 16. She's like, here's a good here's a good sample of my voice, right? I don't even know what that means, like, what is grade 16, but she said, here's a good sample of my voice. And so like, everything she sent me was like, 1612 and I was like, whoa. So I said, I'm gonna show you your voice. I am gonna reflect back your voice, but I'm also going to use, like, really everyday language of the people that are coming to work with you, and we brought it down to about an eight, which felt good to her. Like, I could see in some situations, you might not go lower than that, right? She was a therapist, so it kind of made sense to do that. But yeah, like, you can use AI and these tools to help you conduct like, how can you can even ask it? How can I make this simpler? How can I speak to put in your very specific ideal community member? How can I speak to this person and speak in their language? So don't disregard I we give AI a lot of trouble, like in our minds, sometimes. Times, but don't disregard it as a as a tool that can actually help you create curiosity and speak specifically to people. Well, I

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
think that's a great tip, because you could take, you could write a long form blog post and and take, you know, kind of create the personas for your own organization, to the four types of curiosity that you mentioned at the top of this episode, and create prompts to say, Okay, now here's my one piece. Now, write it for this. Write it for this, write it for this. So you have your core piece, and you can easily, kind of have some support in creating it for those various types of people that you can then arm your your fundraising team with, like, hey, when you're out in conversation, if you feel like the conversation is going this way, here's some messaging points. Like, it's a great way to kind of learn and research and kind of figure out how you can have better conversations and then mimic that in your online marketing. Yeah,

Emily Aborn
I would say the other like idea that pops into my mind, which I think might be helpful for some nonprofits, is to not be afraid or shy away from sharing unique perspectives and insights, not talking about like hashtag vulnerability or hashtag unpopular opinion. I'm talking about like, when you actually have a real unique perspective on something, or you have the heartfelt message. So something locally happened in our community, and it would have been easy for this organization to just go on with their normal newsletter, and like, not address it, but they actually wrote a really, we like, worked to write a really heartfelt message about what had happened. And I think that was a really good way, because people are people are more curious when we're also curious and showing them that we care about them, right? So don't shy away from really taking your your stand sometimes, and showing a different perspective or a different insight into something that you as an organization can have that is not blanket advice. They're totally Yeah, like, time and advice. I like to be clear. There's nuance, there's time, there's place it has to align with your your values, like, there's a lot to consider. But I think it can be really powerful in creating that curiosity and that connection well.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
And I Okay, so I want to, I love that, and I want to flip that into a lot of times we don't stand up for things if they're relevant to the work that you're doing, right? If they make sense, we don't necessarily, maybe stand out because we don't want people to not give to us because we're trying to be all things to all people, right? And I think in that case, maybe you got deeper relationships and got more trust from the people that are the right for the right fit, for donors for your organization. And maybe some people were like, well, I don't, you know, I don't know the situation, but maybe some people are like, You know what, that organization is not right for me, but that's okay, because you don't want money from everybody, because they're not going to continue to give, and you're just going to spend a lot more effort. So like in situations like that, as we're kind of thinking about, how do we invite people to be curious? How do we show that we're curious and that we're open to conversation, and that we're a part of the community, not just these people doing these things? How do we make sure that we don't, that we kind of push away the right people and invite the right people in for curiosity, and that we're not kind of shutting our doors and kind of putting up a hard wall and saying, Well, this is what we're doing. You're you like it or leave it? That's not what I'm saying. You know, like, there's that fine line there. I'm not really saying that well, but I think maybe you get what I

Emily Aborn
have, I have, I understand what you're saying. And I think some of it we talked about with being specific, but, you know, because the specific can be universal, but I think even more importantly, here's what I I love, and I I really stand by this and do this in my own like podcast and content. It's not prescribed, not being prescriptive, or like it's our way or the highway. It's this or that. This is the truth. This is not and I think that that shuts down a lot of curiosity. It closes a loop. So anything that, like, I tried to think of it like anything that closes a loop and is just like, definitive or prescriptive, or like, everybody should do this. Everybody should think this should that's an indication, yeah, you know, those kind of things are things I really would invite us all to consider avoiding, and some of the way to do that is simply by what I just did. Like I would invite us all to consider exploring, right? So even thinking of things like that, but whenever we're being prescriptive, it's usually an indication that, like you, might be shutting down your the curiosity of your community, and it might even be the people who are interested, yeah, might be shutting it down. So

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
how do we kind of create this culture? You talked earlier about how we want to have care. We want to understand who we are as an organization. We've talked a little bit about how to like talk to other people and encourage that, but how do we kind of build that into our team and kind of create a culture of curiosity into how we show up? Because, you know, we're talking about marketing on this podcast all the time, but we. Also talk about, it's not just what we do online, it's how we talk to people in person. It's how we you know, how we write our voice and our content, how we show up on social media, how we show up at events. So how do we kind of create that culture within our team? Because you said, Should is the bad word. The other phrase that we hate is, well, that's just the way it's always been done, and there's a lot of that in the development space. So how do we kind of build this into who we are as an organization? Because that can be tricky. Okay,

Emily Aborn
first, I want to highlight something amazing you just did to make me, like, curious, like just asking that question. It was such a it's a, first of all, it's a different question than I've ever been asked, and so it gets my brain, like, excited, right? And that's all curiosity is. It's just like, getting our brain excited. So one of the ways to do it is to ask different questions in your organization. Like, instead of saying, Okay, actually, I'm gonna use a really basic example. Like, let's say I come up to you at a networking event, and I'm like, So Sami, what do you do? Like, how many times have you been asked that question? You're like, oh my god, do I have to answer this again, right? Like, I blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So instead of asking that, like, ask something that engages somebody's curiosity, like, Sammy, what are you working on right now? Or what are you focused on in 2025 so asking something like that, that's like, I'm gonna learn about what you do when you answer that question, for me, most likely, but it just kind of the listener hears it, and they're like, Okay, so thinking throughout your organization, in your team meetings, what if you start with, like, what are you all excited about today? Or it doesn't have to be that Pollyanna ish if you don't want it to be. But, like, so what's everyone looking forward to at the end of their work day today, right? So, like, just asking different questions to learn about the people within your organization. And I would say, take those four types of curiosity we talked about at the top of the episode, and invite people to figure out which one they are, which one they're most like, and like explore it a little bit, and like talk about it, like even conversations like that, I think, just creates this environment of like, a little bit more engaging, a little bit more caring about one another and like that brings you together collaboratively as a team. I

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
think that's great, because we also don't know what people are dealing with on a day to day at different roles in their organization. Like we all have different stressors. We all have different responsibilities. My biggest ick is when marketers say to everybody, well, I need more content. Give me more content. Like, you're not marketers. You're not thinking about it the way that I am. So if I'm just telling you, give me more content, you're not going to give me anything of value, because you aren't thinking about it in the same way that I am. As far as, like, what's going to be helpful, beneficial, and what we're trying to do, versus saying, like, Hey, I would really love to get a 32nd video of you out in the field, you know, walking a dog and, like, showing how much energy, like, how important it is to get them out, and we're looking for volunteers, like, helping to craft those stories. And so I think what you said is brilliant, because it also just helps us kind of build connections within our team, to be able to then come in and say, Oh, you're doing that. Like, that's super cool. Did you know that we have this going on over here? Maybe that could help, but you would have never made that connection. Otherwise, if you're not kind of creating those questions in a different in a different way. Yeah,

Emily Aborn
I love it, and then I think the other one is just like it through our conversations, and whether that's team or with your your community, is like not giving too many details, but also not being super mysterious, right? Like, there is nothing worse than when you're like, trying to get information from somebody, and it's really, really vague, and you're like, I don't know, but also it's annoying when you get way too many details. You're like, did not need to know all this. So I think that's a way, like in our conversation, yeah, and with our external communication, we can all kind of focus on that, like, where is sort of the sweet spot for, like, just enough details. It's like a it's like a recipe, like, you want it to be spicy, but you don't want it to, like, scald their mouths, because that doesn't make them curious.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
No, I love that. Okay. Well, as we wrap this up, kind of where, you know, we're just getting into 2025 so what are you most excited about as you continue to do this work and share about curiosity marketing, like, what is kind of something that you are just really excited to explore and continue working on this year?

Emily Aborn
Oh, thank you for the question, and I want to ask it back at you. So I am focusing in 2025 a lot on like brand voice, which I've always done, but I'm going, like, really deeply into brand voice and understanding people's voice, because to me, I think that sharing like our personality and who we really are, it's one of the best ways to create curious collaborations. So I like to help. My clients in that way. So that's like my big focus for the new year, and I would love to hear yours.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
Oh, geez. Well, mine is, we have a lot of resources that we've been pumping out over the last few years, and they just need some refresh and revamping. So I'm really excited to jump back into all of our kind of Downloadables and give them a little bit of a face lift and kind of reshare some new strategies. I mean, it's all the same, because we work very much on foundational stuff, but just kind of updating it, you know, with all the things around AI and, yeah, all the goodness there. So I'm just excited to kind of jump back into old content and clean it up, which, yeah, we're starting to work on right now. So good.

Emily Aborn
I love that. One of the questions I always ask in my reflections is, like, what am I bringing back and, like, making new? So yeah, it is such a good answer. Yep, I love

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
it. Well, Emily, this was fantastic. So many good tips, and I just like that. It's a new way to think about how we show up for each other, how we show up for our community, how we show up for our donors, and just being like good humans and respecting each other and inviting people to have conversations. So I think that's great. If people want to learn more about you, connect with you. How do they do that?

Emily Aborn
Yeah, it's thank you so much for having me. This was a lot of fun. And you ask really good, unique questions, which I love. My website is just my first and last name, emilyaborn.com, and you can connect with me in all the places, LinkedIn, wherever you are. I am there, yeah.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
And we'll have everything linked up in the show notes at thefirstclick.net/288, so you can check those all out there. But Emily, this was such a pleasure. Thank you so much. Thank

Emily Aborn
you. Have a great New Year.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern
Okay, one of my favorite conversations, so much fun. I love Emily's insight into how we can approach these conversations externally and internally. So I'm curious about what you are going to do first, how are you going to start to implement this into your organization and into the way that you connect with people and connect with fundraisers or with your funders and your donors and foundations and grants and the community that you serve to help build better connections and showcase brand awareness for who you are and what you do, the amazing work that you're doing every single day. So make sure you head on over to thefirstclick.net/288, grab the show notes, grab the resources that are mentioned here, and make sure you hit that subscribe button where you listen. Now remember, we have bonus episodes coming out throughout the year, and the only way you're going to know about them is if you are subscribed. So make sure you subscribe and hit that notification bell on YouTube and leave us a review on Apple podcasts or Spotify while you're there, helps us get this podcast out to more nonprofits that need the support just like you. Thank you for being a listener. I appreciate you so much, and I can't wait to see you in the next one you.