As a consultant, I have seen a lot of Requests for Proposal (RFPs). Generally, they are okay. Note I say “okay” -- not great, well done, or even really good. The really good ones are few and far between.

The author reads her weekly message from the Rogue Tulips Consulting newsletter "Rogue Speak."

This week's message: Happy Fifth Anniversary Rogue Tulips Consulting!

This is a year of milestones for me professionally as I noted in a message earlier this year (“Musings on Milestones”). On September 18, 2018, I filed the incorporation papers to form Rogue Tulips LLC. The public name for marketing has evolved over the years from Rogue Tulips LLC to Rogue Tulips Nonprofit Consulting & Association Management Services, to our much shorter and easier to say name Rogue Tulips Consulting.

Radio Free 501c is the voice of Rogue Tulips Consulting. The author reads her weekly message from the Rogue Tulips Consulting newsletter, Rogue Speak. This week's topic is: The 200th Episode: It started with Love, Joy, Peace.

We are excited here at Rogue Tulips to celebrate our 200th podcast episode! It’s quite an achievement when you look at the stats: DemandSage reports that "there are over 5 million podcasts." But according to Podcastpage, "there are about 700k active podcasts. The term 'Active' is a little hard to define. If we only look at podcasts that released at least one episode in 2022, the number is about 500,000."

Radio Free 501c is the voice of Rogue Tulips Consulting. The author reads her weekly message from the Rogue Tulips Consulting newsletter, Rogue Speak. This week's topic is: Musings on Milestones.

This year is a big year for milestones for me and my company. Like many journeys, you don’t realize how far you have come until you look back and see that you are a long way from where you started. In 2018, I launched my consulting company, Rogue Tulips Consulting, which means this year is the 5th anniversary. Wow! And that 5-year period includes the pandemic lockdown which sent my company back to day one (like a lot of solopreneurs). It was tough and discouraging but I’m still here. September 18, 2023 is the anniversary of the day that I filed the incorporation papers and so far, so good.

Yesterday, I was on the Morning Coffee Chat (supported by Mighty Citizen and hosted by Nicole Araujo) where you never know what will happen or what will be discussed! A new member of the group brought up the question, “How do you collect customer feedback from a dispersed staff and call center comments?”

Podcasts are all the rage! From individuals to organizations, podcasts are everywhere. Whether you are a global podcaster like Joe Rogan, or you have a small niche audience, options are available for recording, sharing, and promoting your podcast to the world. You don’t need to be a celebrity to have a podcast, but you do need interesting guests. Whether you are doing a daily, weekly, or monthly podcast, having someone to interview or converse with is key to an interesting episode.

We are well into 2022 now, but if we think back to the overwhelming uncertainty of the lockdown in 2020, we remember that many of our nonprofit management colleagues lost their jobs. This was the result of panicked Boards of Directors thinking they needed to save money due to the loss of income from in-person events.

Living in a world where bigger, more, and “lots” seem to be the only indicators of success, it can be hard to stay focused on our personal definitions of success. We are measured by followers, income, organization size, expansion, and the length of our title.

Having once been young, and now being a person of a “Certain Age” as the French say, I can decisively say I will take the wisdom and experience I have earned at this point in life over the uninformed years of my earlier life. As Maurice Chevalier sang, “I’m so glad I’m not young anymore.”

In the fall of 2018, I had an idea. To be completely transparent, I had TWO ideas.

The Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurses (AMSN) has created a corporate partnership relationship with Medtronic that provides significant value for members and AMSN, as well as Medtronic.

We’ve all done it. You get the newsletter or magazine (most likely in digital format these days) and you scour the text for mention of your name. It must be in there SOMEWHERE because you contributed a lot of time and energy to a project for the organization. Not only did you contribute, but you were also the leader of the project – of course your name will be mentioned prominently (likely in BOLD type) and you will receive recognition and thanks from your peers for a job well done.

Hiring a new team member is an important decision. There is a certain amount of pressure to make the right choice and find a person who will fit in your team, excel and be happy at their work, and advance the mission of the organization.