Strategic Onboarding with Nicole Jones of Anti Cancer Lifestyle Program

In this episode of the Health Nonprofit Digital Marketing podcast, Spencer Brooks sits down with Nicole Jones, Director of Marketing at Anti Cancer Lifestyle Program, to explore the topic of strategic onboarding. Nicole shares insights on the importance of a 30-60-90 day plan, emphasizing transparency, goal alignment, and the value of discovery mode. Discover how crafting a solid plan can set the stage for nonprofit success and efficient resource management in the nonprofit space.

About the guest

Nicole Jones is a seasoned marketing expert and storyteller who brings over 15 years of experience in driving impactful campaigns for nonprofits like the Anticancer Lifestyle Program and TechSoup. As the former Director of Marketing at Kintone, she led diverse initiatives from content strategy to branding and social impact. A UC Berkeley Journalism grad, Nicole blends her journalistic insights with a strategic approach, excelling in creating narratives that inspire action.

Resources

• What is an OKR? https://www.whatmatters.com/ 
• Fast Company: https://www.fastcompany.com/
• Stanford Social Innovation Review: https://ssir.org/
• The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/
• Nonprofit tech for good: https://www.nptechforgood.com/
• HubSpot: https://www.hubspot.com/
• Anti Cancer Lifestyle Program: https://anticancerlifestyle.org/

Contact Nicole

• Email:  nicole@anticancerlifestyle.org 

 

Full Transcript

Intro 00:04

Welcome to Health Nonprofit Digital Marketing, a podcast for nonprofit marketers in the health space. Join us as we discuss how to use the web to drive awareness, engagement and action for Health causes. This podcast is part of the thought education of Brooks digital, the web agency for health nonprofits. Now, here’s your host, Spencer Brooks.

Spencer Brooks 00:25

Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Health Nonprofit Digital Marketing. My name is Spencer and today I’m joined by Nicole Jones. Nicole is a seasoned marketing expert and a storyteller with over 15 years of experience driving impactful campaigns for nonprofits like the Anti Cancer Lifestyle Program and TechSoup. As the former Director of Marketing at Kintone. She also led diversity initiatives from content strategy to branding and social impact. So, Nicole, first of all, welcome on the show, as you know, our topic today is strategic onboarding. And I was really pleased actually, when you suggested this as a topic as we’re discussing it. Because I know that one of the things that is really important in nonprofit work is the people right, resourcing, I know that finding good people retaining good people, and making sure that they’re working effectively, is a huge, huge challenge. It’s something I think that everyone can benefit from. So, the topic of onboarding is something I’m really excited to talk about. But before we dive into that, Nicole, would you just mind giving listeners a brief overview of your work of the Anti Cancer Lifestyle Program and what it is that you do there?

Nicole Jones 01:40

Absolutely. So, my biggest project right now is with Anti Cancer Lifestyle Program. And while I’ve worked across the world of nonprofits, this was really the first time I’ve dug into healthcare, but not necessarily the first time I’ve talked about it. As a journalist previously, I produced a lot of stories about the health and welfare primarily of enrollees in California. And of course, healthcare was something that came up in policy decisions and how to tell those stories in a caring, empathetic way has really transitioned into what I’m doing currently with Anti Cancer Lifestyle Program. And this organization, it’s a nonprofit, everything we do, we offer for free, whether you’re a cancer survivor, a patient, you’re a caretaker or maybe a provider, we have free tools, tips and info to help patients survivors, improve their diet, increase fitness, decrease stress and reduce exposure to harmful chemicals in the home environment. So, we’ve got a lot of initiatives that we are continuing to grow to really meet people where they’re at and to present some often complex and overwhelming information in an accessible way.

Spencer Brooks 02:59

Thank you for sharing that, Nicole. And I actually, I also understand that you do some freelance work on the side. Is that right?

Nicole Jones 03:04

I sure do. Yes. So really, my background again, being in storytelling, in journalism has set me up nicely to be able to tell stories for organizations that I really care about, anticancer lifestyle program being one of them. But I’ve worked for other clients like the housing authority of San Joaquin County TechSoup, a nonprofit that helps other nonprofits with digital transformation and technology. I’ve done some work for an organization that helps tell the stories of women who are leaving prison. So it’s really span the gamut. And I love helping these organizations tell their story, so it connects with people who want to take action.

Spencer Brooks 03:46

Well, I’m very excited to have you on the on the show today. I know that you know, your experience, and your background is right up the alley of a bunch of listeners. And so I just like to dive right into the topic. If you’re good with that, Nicole?

Nicole Jones 03:56

Let’s do it. Yeah. Thanks for having me.

Spencer Brook  03:59

Absolutely. Yeah. So, let’s start by maybe having you provide listeners a brief overview of why onboarding and I think strategic onboarding, right. I think the word strategic is one of the operative words here, why strategic onboarding is crucial for nonprofits, especially those in the healthcare sector.

04:18

Absolutely. So, I think this is so applicable, whether you’re a large nonprofit, especially if you’re a small nonprofit, but regardless of size, strategic, right, keyword onboarding is absolutely vital. Right. I know a lot of times, especially small nonprofits, we’re strapped for time, right? We needed these things done yesterday. So often, it feels like the onboarding plan can go to the wayside. So being strategic, being thoughtful about a 30 60 90-day plan is a really big part of onboarding and can create huge success even if you feel like you’re compromised sometimes so it really goes beyond this traditional orientation. And it’s a strategy that ensures new hires are not just acclimated, but also deeply integrated into the organization’s culture and mission. And that will have the ROI that will come for months and months and months down the road. So, yeah, really the first 30 days the focus is on immersion and understanding. Most recently when I joined Anti Cancer Lifestyle Program, really this period for me was like detective work, you know, you want to delve into the organization’s ethos, understand the who, of course, the team members, the stakeholders, but you know, who is this community were serving? And why? What’s the core mission, specific healthcare challenges that we want to address. It seems like pretty common sense. But you would be surprised, I’m sure, probably maybe not, how often we overlook this stage. So that’s really the first 30-day plan. And then if you move into the 60-day mark here, we start to see more active participation and contribution. So, in this case, for me at anticancer lifestyle program, it involved just right away getting into a digital campaign tailored to resonate with our audience. And this phase, of course, is really important, you’re starting to roll up your sleeves here and translate some of this practical information that you’ve learned in the first 30 days and find some innovative ways to address healthcare issues. You know, raise that awareness, engage with your community, and ultimately have that deeper connection with the mission and communicate effectively with your audience. And then by day 90, by no means is this transformation complete, right? We are always learning. But you can really start to bring it all together. It’s kind of like being a conductor, right? You’re orchestrating the team’s efforts into this cohesive, impactful symphony, and in the healthcare nonprofit space, this is really where strategic onboarding process shows its true value, where you don’t see yourself as an individual performing your role. But you start to synergize with the rest of the organization. So yes, having this 30 60 90-day plan, you know, at a glance, I can’t emphasize enough. Even if you’re working in a small organization, even if you’re let’s say you’re starting your employer is not asking you to do one, do one anyway, it’s going to make you a better contributor.

Spencer Brooks 07:28

I’m curious, Nicole, what you’ve observed when this doesn’t happen, right? When there’s not an onboarding plan, I do want to discuss the details more. But to sort of set up the flip side of this too, what would be your expectation of, you know, someone coming into an organization, they don’t have an onboarding plan? What are some of the, the risks or the things that could go wrong? When you just sort of unleashed someone on an organization without much structure or direction?

Nicole Jones 07:57

Yeah, I think the biggest thing ultimately is you’re wasting time, you might be repeating things, perhaps mistakes that have been already made, without really looking at previous campaigns, without looking at maybe previous surveys, any type of research, qualitative, quantitative, that exists. If you don’t have that already in your head, it’s really difficult to be able to make thoughtful suggestions, thoughtful contributions, about you know how you can make a difference in your particular role. So I think that’s the biggest thing is that ultimately, you’re wasting time and might seem like you’re saving time because you’re not reading these things, or you’re not having conversations with key stakeholders, be it people on your team, or maybe even people in your community, the community that you’re serving, the stakeholders that you’re serving. So yes, I can’t stress it enough that ultimately you will be saving time and headaches by just doing your homework.

Spencer Brooks 08:59

Yeah, I would definitely agree with that. And I think that that is that counterintuitive thing where, you know, if I’m hiring someone, and I have a real need, and I’m saying I gotta get someone in this place, you know, usually like, I can imagine a common situation. I mean, I’ve certainly, you know, dealt with this, although I don’t work at a nonprofit, I’m sure it’s, you know, somewhat similar. Someone, you know, either quits or maybe you identify, hey, we’re growing and we have this need. That means usually as the person that’s hiring, I’m trying to shoulder part of the job or someone else’s shouldering part of the job. And so, there is a lot of pressure to get someone in and up to speed as quickly as possible. And I think maybe some of the expectations that I’ve had in the past that aren’t correct are like, this person, I’ll hire them and then I’ll just unleash them upon the organization. And then I’ll step away and then everything will go really well or you just sort of leave them to their own devices. And so I would definitely agree that although, you know, it might seem like on the surface that, you know, 30 60 90 day plan is going to drag this process out. It just seems like it prevents a lot of problems. And so anyway, I do feel like the I don’t know if you would agree that part of this is just like the expectations of the person that’s hiring or if there’s other things, but I think that’s how I see it.

Nicole Jones 10:23

Yeah, you’re right. I think expectations too, because, hey, look, we may join an organization, or we may hire someone with the best intentions, at face value. You know, we did our homework into that person, we did our homework into that organization. But maybe we find out 30 days in, 60 days in, 90 days in that it’s not a good fit for either party. And you know what, that’s okay. I can’t recall, I think it’s either Zappos or some organization, maybe Netflix, where if you realize as an employee, at 60 days, 90 days, this organization is not a good fit for me, this role is not a good fit for me, you can leave and I think that gives you a bonus, some type of incentive to help make it okay, and say, Hey, this is part of joining. And I know that can be such a headache, especially for a small organization, if you spent all this time looking for the right candidate, and you too as a job seeker, you put in a lot of time to make sure you’re finding an organization that fits with your expectations. But look, at the end of the day, sometimes we don’t meet those expectations. And I think it’s good. And it’s better for both parties to say, you know what, I think we need to go our own ways. And that’s okay, and let’s find a better fit for this role. So that’s also part of the 30 60-day, 90 day plan is to just be upfront, and be honest about that.

Spencer Brooks 11:50

So, do you feel like the plan itself is a way to set those expectations more clearly so it becomes, hey, here’s what we’re expecting of you, the hirer and here’s like some of these milestones or whatever, right? That we’re looking for you to hit. And so then that way, when that person maybe decides, oh, no, I actually think this is not working out, then it’s a little bit easier to part ways? Do you feel like it? Is that one of the reasons why it becomes a bit easier to do it? Are there other reasons that you feel like that onboarding plan makes it a bit easier for someone to, or for the people to mutually decide, hey, this is not working out? Are there any any other reasons that you feel like that would be helpful? Or what are your thoughts on that?

Nicole Jones 12:35

I do think so. Because, especially in these first three months, they’re so critical to understanding how a person learns. And you know, are they asking the right questions? Are they curious? Are they taking an initiative to meet with key stakeholders to make sure they really understand the task at hand. So it can be a really good way to gauge what type of relationship you will have well into the future. So yeah, it’s almost like a little bit of a trial run too. And so, I think it’s good for both sides. Honestly, you know, I don’t think it’s to trick one or the other, I think it’s just to be like, really clear about this is the challenge that we have for organization. And can you know, can you show up in the best way possible? And well, just to say to that 30 60-day 90 plan should absolutely be a collaborative process. It’s not necessarily demanded by the employer. It’s something that you come up together. And I think that’s where you also get to see what types of things are, you know, will the employee put down as things that I know I need to do to get myself in shape to be prepared to serve beyond 90 days, so they have an idea of what the mission is, you know, they’re having a growing understanding of what the challenges are being faced by this organization? So, are they crafting the right 30 60 day 90 plan to get them to where they need to be?

Spencer Brooks 14:10

Yeah, I think that’s, that’s, it’s right on, on the topic of the plan, Nicole, I actually think it might be helpful to maybe we can dig into each of those phases, right, the 30, the 60 90, in a little bit more detail, kind of flesh that out, you know, because I think that, obviously, every plan is going to look different. But if you are like you mentioned collaboratively crafting this, either, you know, with the person who hired you or the person that you hired, having an idea of what might happen in each phase and a little bit more of the activities or details of best practices could be helpful. So maybe could we start with the discovery mode, right, that first 30 days? Do you have any tips for folks to navigate that phase effectively, so that they can really understand the organization’s goals and challenges?

Nicole Jones 14:57

Yes, absolutely. Yeah, the discovery mode during onboarding, it is so vital, especially when it comes to just being clear on goals and challenges for the organization. So, some practical tips I would share to make the most of this phase is to engage in cross departmental learning, really understanding the functions and challenges of how all these departments operate. So, you know, an example from right the marketing and development team, which often for nonprofits, especially in health care go hand in hand. But this could involve shadowing team members, attending departmental meetings from other departments too, you know, not just your own. And also, just understanding what projects and what some of their top challenges are. So yeah, that cross departmental learning is so important to understand the interconnectedness of the organization. Another important tactic is scheduling informal meetings, coffee chats with colleagues, I know these days, a lot of it is remote, still, maybe having some scheduled lunchtime, where you’re getting to know your colleagues, you know, on a more personal level, to build that rapport. And those conversations often reveal a lot of the unwritten rules and some of those cultural nuances of your organization and just more diverse perspectives on the organization’s strengths and weaknesses. And this next one, I cannot stress enough, but documenting and reflecting. Keep a journal or notes of your observations, conversations, reflections, every single time I’ve started a new project, either, you know, as a full-time employee, or with a new client, I would jot down my thoughts at the end of the day with the top things that I learned and the top questions that I had. And then I would periodically review these notes to identify patterns and challenges. And really just what I wanted to talk about in future conversations with my colleagues, something else engaging with external stakeholders, I think it really depends on what your role is in the organization. But for as many people as possible, meeting with external stakeholders, this could be partners, donors, beneficiaries, understanding their perspectives on your organization, right, getting that outsider view can provide immense insights into how the organization is perceived externally, and what it stands for. So I love that one, I think I have gained some of the best insights for meeting with external stakeholders. What else? There’s also analyzing internal communications, right, looking at everything that’s been done in the past, of course, understanding your landscape, right, your sector that you’re in, looking at reports, following, you know, right away on LinkedIn, on other channels, some of the most reputable sources or forums where they’re talking about your sector, kind of starting your day reading about that. And then yeah, of course, everything is rooted in setting personal learning goals, and what specific knowledge or understanding that you want to gain with some clear objectives. So those are the key ones for the discovery mode.

Spencer Brooks 18:11

Yeah, I love those. I would, I would totally agree with that. And I also find, you know, I mean, this is my, my own perspective on it, too. But when you have that sort of plan, and you’re thinking about that first 30 days, and all of those, you know, chats with people, all those learning activities are expressed as like, here’s the tasks that I’m going to do this week, and that’s shared collaboratively, then all of a sudden, you know, what could otherwise look like, maybe not the most productive week in the world, especially that those first couple of weeks, you know, there’s not a lot of, I say productive work in the sense of like you’re producing something. It of course, is productive work to be doing this. But I think that that can be a temptation for someone new to be like, hey, I gotta really show that I’m doing something, right. But actually, if you’re simply like, hey, my goal for this first week, or the first two weeks is to meeting with this person, this person, this person, this coffee, I learned this law, right? All of a sudden, it’s like, oh, yeah, this person actually hasn’t been up to a lot. And then if you’re also doing that, collaboratively, you’re probably going to have a better idea of who within the organization to talk to or outside. So, I think that’s a really, really good advice.

Spencer Brooks 19:24

How about this 60 day mark? Nicole, you mentioned, this is more of the rolling up your sleeves phase where you’re actually starting to do stuff, right. Could you talk me through what that looks like from transitioning from discovery mode into actually rolling up your sleeves and what someone might be doing at that 60-day mark?

Nicole Jones 19:45

Yeah, I would say rolling up your sleeves, in collaboration, right in close contact with maybe people who’ve been doing it at your organization for a while. We don’t always have that luxury, especially on small teams, where you might be the first person to be doing this or, you know, some particular initiative, or perhaps someone was doing it before your time, and maybe you’re trying to follow their notes or put together spreadsheets or look at whatever offboarding material they might have put together to, you know, try to make sense of what needs to be done. But, you know, you don’t want to shy away. And just back to the discovery and 30-day mark, really making a case for it for you to do this to be a better employee, even if it’s not on your employer’s radar, just so they do see this as time, as valuable time being spent. And saying, you know, that’ll help you get to that 60-day mark, to really start rolling up your sleeves and actively engaging with this core baseline information that you have about the organization and the stakeholders that you’re serving. So really, this involves just getting into things, you know, showing your value, right? Maybe that’s, if you’re in marketing, picking up a newsletter, really starting to do the newsletter without maybe making too many adjustments, like if this is something that you the organization has been doing for a while and that’s part of your mandate, perhaps you don’t want to change everything overnight in it. Actually, would not recommend that at all. Because you’re still in learning mode to see what is the baseline, you’re creating a baseline so that you can start to make tweaks, which really comes right in the 90 day mark, so yes, I think finding something that you can really start to get involved in, and that’s usually going to be a core task. That’s why I say a newsletter, right? Because we know a newsletter comes pretty regularly for organizations. And maybe that’s starting to go to more donor meetings, if you’re in development, but really starting to show that value, and to have that deeper connection with your organization. And really, that’s when you start to communicate more with your stakeholders, the first 30 days feels like it’s a little bit more internal time, the 60 day is where you really start to get out there more, and show your work.

Spencer Brooks 22:17

And then of course, then we’re rolling into the 90-day mark, as you’re starting to get integrated, you know, around that 60-day mark. And then so for you, then what sort of starts to change in that last 30-day period, as you’re rounding out the plan?

Nicole Jones 22:34

Yeah, I think a lot of those questions you came in with are either answered or you’ve developed questions for your questions, which is great. And that’s going to really help set your KPIs, you know, what are going to be your key performance indicators in your role to gauge your success and how it’s connected to the organizational levels of success, as well. So yeah, this part is where you’re seeing it all come together. And I think it’s really valuable to share your reflections, right, especially if you have been, you know, taking notes is to synthesize those, and share them with the people who met with you in those chats, see if they can build on something that you had early on, you know, those questions, those kind of ideas, and share where you’re at 90 days and see what they have to add to that. So it’s really about this all gelling together and getting a sense of your role, of your unique value in this organization to be able then to say, okay, you know, here are my marching orders, here’s what I’m being measured up against. And here’s where I want to go, you know, in the next three months, in the next six months, in the next 12 months.

Spencer Brooks 23:50

Nicole, you mentioned KPIs, and I wanted to circle back to that, because I know one of the things that is important is obviously being able to measure the success of a plan. And I think, you know, set like the goals and KPIs are an important part of that. So, do you have any recommendations for, you know, choosing and setting, you know, goals and your KPIs for an onboarding plan, so that there’s some level of measurable success?

Nicole Jones 24:16

Yes, I actually love creating KPIs. And would make time to nerd out on it, especially when I was at Kintone. So, we would have, of course, like our quarterly meetings for our entire organization. And it was really important, especially for marketing and sales, to get really clear on what the KPIs are for the organization, but then how can we set our own KPIs for our departments and make sure that we’re supporting each other mostly marketing, supporting sales, and from there, I would drill down and have each of my team members, on the marketing team come up with their own KPIs based off what we set, you know, at the organizational level, so the high level and then you know how that trickle down into the departmental level, so marketing, and then have each team member, come up with their own that all syncs up to our organizational wide KPIs. And I find, first of all, it’s so important because it helps you reflect, first of all on what’s been done that last quarter, what worked well, what didn’t, and how you want to improve on that. And that’s something then that we check in on every single week is, you know, how are things going, of course, it’s hard to really see what traction has been made, but like, it keeps us accountable. I think that’s the biggest thing with KPIs is this accountability, and that we know what we’re marching toward, and that even if we’re not feeling good about something mid quarter, like, we’re still going to try it out and like try other approaches instead of just giving up on it. And then, you know, at the end of that quarter, report on it, so in terms of creating KPIs, you know, it’s been a couple years since I’ve done it like at the high team level, and we would follow Google’s KPI system, which I’m totally blanking on it. Do you know this? They have, like a specific term that they use and other organizations have then, you know, followed suit, and creating this KPI system.

Spencer Brooks 26:24

There’s OKRs, right? Is that,

Nicole Jones 26:26

OKRs, yes. Okay, just a little different from KPIs. But OKRs, I think, are incredibly helpful. Again, like they are quantitative based and qualitative based goal setting methods help to really create that focus, like I mentioned on and you know, frequently set, like set every quarter and reevaluate, like, how did we do last quarter? And where, you know, based off that, where are we going in this coming quarter, and it all syncs up into the organizational wide level. So that’s the thing it’s making sure too what I would also ask my team members to do is also add in, you know, your KPI or OKR, based on something professionally, that you want to accomplish, right, or something that’s going to help us as an organization, but something that is also a skill that you want to gain, and, you know, incorporate that as well, I think that’s really important to also add in that employee engagement piece into it.

Spencer Brooks 27:26

Yeah, I love that and I’ll make sure as well to get some links to the OKR framework in particular, that stands, by the way, for those who are listening and going, like, What in the world are you talking about? I think its objectives and key results. If my memory serves me correctly, which it hasn’t been, you know, apparently, I couldn’t remember the acronym in the first place. So, who knows? I’ll make sure to get a link to that in the show notes for folks. Really good framework.

Spencer Brooks 27:51

Nicole, I wanted to move into I can’t believe that, you know, we’re already 30 minutes into this conversation. Time flies. I had some other questions I did want to ask you. These are the standardized questions I like to ask pretty much every guest that comes on the show. The first one is just what’s one thing in digital that you’re working on right now that consumes a lot of your brain space? And what takeaways can you share with listeners who might encounter that same challenge?

Nicole Jones 28:18

Yes, always so many challenges. But I would say the one that is consuming a lot of brain space right now, particularly at Anti Cancer Lifestyle Program, is figuring out how to scale the intimacy and effectiveness of our learning circles. So, learning circles, it’s been a cornerstone of our program success. And what it is, it’s a supportive and engaging environment. Right now it’s done virtually, for cancer survivors to learn and grow together. But we have found that scaling this intimate experience to reach a wider audience without losing its essence is a puzzle. So yes, just a little bit more about what they are. So, they are like, these groups that cancer survivors will go through, they use our 10 hour self paced course, which everything is free, everything we do is provided free. And then they share ideas, experiences, they encourage each other as they learn about different healthy lifestyle measures like Diet, Fitness, mindset, and reducing toxic exposures in their environments. And why I say you know, it’s hard to scale this intimacy is because it is so high touch, but we have found this to be the most powerful way to intervene in creating healthy lifestyle. So, we’re trying to figure out how do we take this successful, but this resource intensive model and scale it up digitally? So, you know, we’ve been thinking about some strategies, and I think this is really applicable to any organization to that is looking to build out their community base to support their champions and to do it in an intimate way. So, for us in particular, what we’re looking at is a train the trainer approach. So, at the heart of our strategies expand the learning circle development as a comprehensive facilitator guide. So, we want to make this guide as self-service as possible, right, a turnkey solution. We’re a small nonprofit, that we want to make sure we’re providing something for facilitators that they can do on their own, and to also connect with more providers. So, you know, cancer support groups, cancer centers, hospitals, things like that, to create their own group and to feel empowered with a facilitator guide to be able to do that. So yeah, hopefully that they become, you know, equipped to lead their own. Another thing is doing partnerships, partnerships are going to be key to scale. And so that’s something we’re really trying to work on. So forming partnerships, like I mentioned, with cancer care centers, and hospitals, that can integrate these learning circles into their patients support services. What else? Of course, so leveraging digital platforms for facilitator training. So we can provide online training sessions and webinars and other digital resources that help make this training more accessible to more healthcare providers. And then just a couple more things, you know, building that community of facilitators, creating a network where they feel supported with ongoing support with, you know, best practices, ways for them to come together and share ideas. So, this will be huge. In addition to of course, as always collecting feedback, we collect tons of feedback with Anti Cancer Lifestyle Program and all the services we provide. But this will be really important as we find ways to scale learning circles and measuring impact and success story. So documenting and sharing the success of these learning circles. It’s not just for motivation, but also demonstrates the value of the program to potential facilitators and healthcare partners. So yeah, really, scaling, intimacy and personal connection in a digital world is challenging, but it is not impossible. It’s just a thoughtful blend of technology, of community building strategies, right, what, you know, speaking to the parts of our social connectedness, and then of course, that continuous adaptation, based on the feedback that we’re getting.

Spencer Brooks 32:17

yeah, that’s a great answer. And I know there’s a lot of people listening, who are also trying to build out their own communities, particularly in this, the intersection between healthcare and nonprofit work that that tends to happen a lot. So yeah, it was great to hear about that. I also wanted to ask you, Nicole, what are two or three resources you regularly use to keep up on news and trends in your work?

Nicole Jones 32:36

Yes, yeah, gotta stay on top of my game, especially in this fast paced environment. So, I’ve got a cocktail of different resources I use, I love Fast Company, just for innovative ideas of what companies are doing, but also, you know, for profit, nonprofit and for profit companies are doing. And on that note, Stanford Social Innovation Review also gives me a deep dive into the latest and social impact trends. And then I love the Atlantic. I think their storytelling is fantastic and gives me good ideas for how to tell often complex stories for the healthcare organizations that I work at. And then the last big one is Nonprofit Tech for Good. And HubSpot for my digital marketing strategies.

Spencer Brooks 33:23

Awesome. Thank you for sharing all those resources. Nicole, we’ll make sure as always to get those out in the show notes for folks to access. And I only have one last question for you, actually. And that’s how can listeners get in touch with you if they’d like to learn more about your work?

Nicole Jones 33:38

Yes, absolutely. Well, I have to say Anti Cancer Lifestyle Program has something for everyone. Again, cancer survivor, patient, caretaker provider, even if you just want to learn about preventing chronic illness, go to anticancerlifestyle.org. And then if you want to get in touch with me, I’m on LinkedIn. Look me up. I’m Nicole Marie Jones, and I’m always down for coffee chats and talking shop.

Spencer Brooks 34:03

Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Nicole. That wraps up our show for today. If you liked this episode, please consider rating and reviewing us on Apple podcasts or whatever platform you listen on helps people find the show and in addition to the show is part of the thought leadership of Brooks digital, we are a web strategy, design and development agency for nonprofits who are in the health space. So, if you liked this podcast, check out our website at Brooks.digital, and you can find more of our insights and learn about our work. But with all that said, Nicole, thank you so much for coming on the show today.

Nicole Jones 34:38

Thanks for having me, Spencer.

Intro 34:45

Thanks for listening to help nonprofit digital marketing. If you liked this episode, leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform. And don’t forget to check out the Brooks digital website at www.brooks.digital where you can find other resources like this podcast learn how we help nonprofits like yours and get in touch with our team see in the next episode.