Stop Competing, Start Differentiating: Trevor Nelson's 7-Figure Strategy

Written By cindy wagman

"I'm not gonna do it like everybody else. I'm very stubborn. I'm very competitive. I do believe that differentiation is stronger than competition." - Trevor Nelson

That's Trevor Nelson from HGA Fundraising, and he's built something pretty incredible by completely ignoring what his competitors were doing. While everyone else was chasing the luxury market at the "tip of the pyramid," Trevor went straight for the base – working with smaller nonprofits that everyone else was overlooking.

The result? A 7-figure consignment business with 24 employees, serving thousands of events.

And they're just getting started.

In this episode, Trevor pulls back the curtain on his anti-competition strategy and shares why trying to beat everyone else at their own game is a losing battle. Instead, he chose to be the best at something completely different, and it's working.

Highlights:

  • Stop trying to out-compete everyone else. Trevor looked at what his competitors were doing and deliberately chose the opposite path. Sometimes the best strategy is not to play the same game.

  • Volume can be your friend if you're not afraid of it. With thin margins and a "make a little off of a lot" model, Trevor embraces scale instead of running from it. His mindset: "All I have to do is exactly what we're doing right now, just more of it."

  • Family business isn't a dirty word. Against all conventional wisdom, Trevor built his company by hiring his sister, brother-in-law, and best friends. His take: "Those are the people you can trust and roll with."

  • Relationships are your real equity. Trevor's entire business model is built on genuine connections – even talking prospects out of using their services if it's not the right fit. The long game always wins.

Ready to stop competing and start differentiating? This conversation will shift how you think about positioning your consulting business in a crowded market.

Timestamp summary: 

  • [00:00] - Opening philosophy: "I'm not gonna do it like everybody else"

  • [02:34] - What HGA Fundraising does: helping nonprofits raise more money through events

  • [05:09] - Trevor's entrepreneur journey into the nonprofit consulting space

  • [08:34] - The "base of the pyramid" strategy: serving who competitors ignore

  • [11:20] - How the consignment business model actually works

  • [15:00] - Revenue structure: organizations only pay when items sell

  • [16:39] - End-to-end donor experience control vs. third-party vendors

  • [19:00] - Volume strategy: "make a little off of a lot" for 7-figure growth

  • [22:32] - Building a 24-person team (only lost 4 people in 5 years)

  • [27:00] - HGA Fundraising’s family business philosophy

  • [31:00] - Anti-exit strategy: building to scale and be the best, not to sell

  • [33:24] - Handling setbacks as a high-energy entrepreneur

  • [36:00] - Physical activity and business performance connection

  • [38:16] - CONFESSION: "Be nice to everyone that's nice to you and nothing more"

  • [40:00] - Setting boundaries without being an asshole

  • [42:22] - How to connect with Trevor Nelson

Resources Mentioned:

TRANSCRIPT:

[00:00:00] Trevor: I'm not gonna do it like everybody else. I'm very stubborn. I'm very competitive. I do believe that differentiation is stronger than competition. I am gonna work with that base of the pyramid and we're just gonna kick ass at it and make it the best possible way. And then another thing is like, no pressure.

[00:00:17] Yes, I have a sales background, but I'd rather put our best information out for free and talk folks out of using our product if it doesn't make sense for them. 

[00:00:27] Jess: Welcome to the Confessions podcast. I'm Cindy Wagman. And I'm Jess Campbell. We're two former in-house nonprofit pros turned coaches and consultants to purpose-driven organizations.

[00:00:38] Cindy: After years of building up our separate six figure businesses 

[00:00:41] Jess: from scratch, we've thrown a lot of spaghetti at the wall and have lived to see what sticks. We're on a mission to help other nonprofit coaches and consultants looking to start or scale their own businesses past the six figure mark. By pulling back the curtain, 

[00:00:57] Cindy: whether you're still working inside a [00:01:00] nonprofit and thinking of one day going out on your own, or you've been running your consulting business four years, you understand that working with nonprofits.

[00:01:07] It's just different. We're giving you access to the business leaders who serve nonprofits as their clients. You know the people 

[00:01:17] Jess: who truly get it. No more gatekeeping, no more secrets. This podcast is going to give you an inside look at what running a successful. Full nonprofit coaching and consulting business looks like.

[00:01:30] Basically, we're asking people how much money they make, how they get paid, and what has and hasn't worked in their businesses. Listen in as 

[00:01:39] Cindy: these leaders share their insights, their numbers, and the good, the bad, and the ugly. When it comes to building a nonprofit coaching or consulting business, we're gonna empower you to make the power moves that give you the income and freedom you set out to create from day one.

[00:01:55] You ready? Let's go. Hey, Jess. Hello. How's it [00:02:00] going? 

[00:02:00] Jess: It's going great actually. Thank you. 

[00:02:03] Cindy: Amazing. Okay. So I know this is gonna be a fun conversation because I was on the podcast of today's guest, Trevor Nelson from HGA fundraising. I was on his podcast and we just had such a fun time talking about all the things and random tangents.

[00:02:21] So we're gonna have so much fun with him on our podcast today. The hell. I feel like we should, let's do it. Dive into.

[00:02:26] So for audience who doesn't know you, tell us about your business. What does HGA do? 

[00:02:33] Trevor: Yeah. Oh, we, I short answer is we help nonprofits raise more money. That's what we do. Yeah. It's a awesome, that's our, that's our message. That's our 

[00:02:38] Cindy: message. Now you specialize in something that I think our sector loves to hate on, which are events, right?

[00:02:46] Like you. I feel like we talked a little bit about that before, maybe offline where there's PI think it's interesting, we just recorded a podcast about LinkedIn direct messaging, and I feel like there's something similar with that, which is like if you do it badly, people hate it. But if you do it really well, it's [00:03:00] amazing.

[00:03:00] So tell us a little bit more about the product services, like how you actually work with organizations. 

[00:03:06] Trevor: Yeah, I get now what you're saying. I was like, people hate auction items that raise a bunch of money. I was like, what are you talking about? No, but absolutely. Yeah. I think it's popular to say, Hey, you don't need events or you don't need in-person gatherings to raise money and all this stuff.

[00:03:18] And I'm, you know, a social person by nature. Of course. Yeah. Our business is predicated on folks gathering in large groups and purchasing auction items that they can use as trips and experiences that raise a bunch of money For sure. So yeah, we are big fans of folks gathering and raising money. But yeah, like you said, unpopular, I just think it's like.

[00:03:40] And you and I had this conversation on the power. It's like if fundraising is not an OR thing, it's not like a, I'm just using this as a an example. It's not major gifts or live events or in-person events. It's, and you can have it all. It's like, it's so funny, I was just talking to a friend today. It's just like, you know, we we're seeing the rise of [00:04:00] monthly recurring opportunities at in-person events.

[00:04:02] Folks would've never thought about doing that. I don't care six months ago. And it's just like, yeah, because you got everyone that really, really loves your organization in the same place at the same time, and you're giving them an opportunity to give. So it's, yeah, it's, I'm not on my soapbox by saying that folks crave that kind of socialization and just, of course, getting together in a group of like-minded individuals and why not raise money while you're doing it, so, 

[00:04:27] Jess: absolutely.

[00:04:27] Trevor: Yeah. 

[00:04:27] Jess: Yeah. So, okay. So for the purposes of this conversation though, like. We wanna know about your business, like we can debate, okay. Events or not events forever. Yeah. But we wanna know about your business and so were you an events person before this? Did you run auctions? I. Or how did you land on this vertical?

[00:04:49] Trevor: Yeah, that's very, that's a very good question. 'cause if you would've said 10 years ago that I'd be doing this, I would've said far out, how did I get there? And that's my approach to everything. I'm an entrepreneur, I know it's a buzz [00:05:00] term, been a part of multiple companies. I had the good success or you know, like good fortune I guess, of having a sales background.

[00:05:08] Because when you start a company, you know, you gotta make the cash register and make that sound right. It's so, I figured out how to sell well. What was interesting was like when I got in the space of helping nonprofits raise money, I realized that there was a, I set a very deep rabbit hole and I still don't know how deep it goes.

[00:05:25] That's the cool thing. I think this space is amazing. I'm, the work is amazing. It has been the entire time, but when I talk about like my background in sales, my background in sales became predicated on relationship building, and I've had just, I just was given this bang, this gift. When I wake up in the morning that I wanna do business with people that I like and I want them to like me.

[00:05:48] And that's not very difficult. It's not hard to make friends, I don't think. Like it should be pretty easy for most folks. And I might, it might be bad business advice five years ago or 10 years ago, but I just happened to, when I [00:06:00] did business with people, they became friends and I check in with them and if I was thinking about them, I'd call them or I'd text them and, and I would just, they go, wow, that's really strange.

[00:06:11] You're not asking me for anything. And it's similar to like, you know, nonprofit professionals asking people for money. It's like, Hey, you could just call them and tell them what's up and what's going on. And that worked out splendidly to the point where, I guess my point getting to that is my relationships or my true equity.

[00:06:26] And I ended up starting this company with my best friend who was my best client, and I ended up doing business with people that I had absolutely zero. Business, doing business with at the time, like way too big of an organization, for instance, to be helping at their events. But it's because we cared and they liked us and we liked them and that kind of thing.

[00:06:46] So that's how I got into space was just identifying, there was a huge opportunity to work with a ton of nonprofits and help them at their events and have a kickass product and all those other things that go along with it. Of course. So. [00:07:00] 

[00:07:00] Jess: So one of the things that I think about a lot now that I've been doing this work for eight-ish years, Cindy knows this.

[00:07:07] I'm always thinking about my next rendezvous, my next adventure. I don't know if this is an unpopular take, but surprisingly, I find most nonprofit consultants plan to do this for the rest of their career. I am not one of those people, and one of the things I think about a lot is like selling and selling.

[00:07:27] So I am a little curious as a self-described entrepreneur, why you picked doing events with nonprofits. I always think, I guess in my head is what Alex OSI says about like selling expensive things to rich people I think the vast majority of nonprofits raise less than a million dollars a year, and so they're not.

[00:07:48] Institutions with like budgets and all sorts of things. So yeah, I guess I am. Was it just like the feel good part of it? Did you just do what happened to me, which is I was in the nonprofit sector and then I [00:08:00] transitioned it was the devil I knew, so to speak. Or was it something else? And if you were to go back, maybe you would actually do it different.

[00:08:08] Trevor: I wouldn't change a thing, so I'll answer that in back to four. I would not change a thing 'cause we created this really cool family business. And if I get going too deep about that, I'll probably start crying. Right. You know, it's been this really amazing thing. It feels like we're just beginning, and that's a really cool mentality to have is that kind of startup mentality.

[00:08:22] What you mentioned about you getting out of this space and me getting into this space are the same if you ask me. Most entrepreneurs are very curious. You go, oh, hey, what's going on over here? And let's just do a little dive and maybe go to a conference and see what's going on and meet some people.

[00:08:37] 'cause that's easy. Right, right. If we're outgoing, right. It's easy to meet people and make friends in certain space and just see what's there. Right. But yeah, there was a curiosity. I had hospitality background. And then what's so funny, the way you asked your question too, is that like I looked at nonprofit, especially event fundraising.

[00:08:54] As a pyramid. Okay. And I identified, given the fact that I [00:09:00] was curious about the space, I identified there were some quote unquote competitors that were appealing to the rich people buying the luxury items at the very, very tip of the pyramid. And I said, well, what are folks doing for the base and who's working with the base of the sector as well?

[00:09:17] So I said, I'm very competitive. And curious, and I had a background in selling and in hospitality and I was like, okay, we're gonna create some kick ass auction items that folks can use that really raise money that don't push my agenda of destination or anything. They're just an opportunity, a tool that raise a lot of money and this is how we're gonna go about doing it.

[00:09:38] I also think that given the age that I was, when I got in the space, being 34, 35 and working. Family businesses and starting companies and stuff like that. Since I was like 11, frankly, like working at my parents' restaurant, I believe the space got my best version where I was like, okay, I'm not gonna do it like everybody else.

[00:09:59] I'm [00:10:00] very stubborn, I'm very competitive. I do believe the differentiation is stronger than competition. I am gonna work with that base of the pyramid and we're just gonna kick ass at it and make it the best possible way. And then another thing is like, no pressure. Yes, I have a sales background, but. I'd rather put our best information out for free and talk folks out of using our product if it doesn't make sense for them.

[00:10:24] I know we're gonna become friends and if you need something in the future, fantastic. Great. And if you don't, that's okay too. You know what I mean? So buying into that, I know it sounds popular or whatever, but we really bought into that like, Hey, you don't have to work with us, but here's some great tools to use.

[00:10:39] And that's why we started the pod and the webinars and stuff like that. Once again, being different. 'cause I just noticed that no one else was doing it. Especially in our little narrow of, like you said, vertical. So. Yeah, that's what got us going. 

[00:10:50] Cindy: Okay. I have so many questions. I'm making notes. Cool. Here. I wanna start with the business model because like back in the day when I was in house and doing events, like [00:11:00] we had silent auctions, live auctions, and literally like pound the pavement, local businesses, donors, trying to find things.

[00:11:10] I had no idea or if I know this kind of thing existed, and I'll be honest, like I was super skeptical. I was like, how does this work? Where basically, I don't know, I haven't looked into the model. So tell us how your business model works in terms of what you're selling and how organizations pay for it.

[00:11:28] Use it, how, like how you get paid, that kind of thing. 

[00:11:31] Trevor: Perfect, perfect. I think once again, making it easy for folks to understand, especially nonprofit professionals. Any good business wants to remove friction. Hey, it's really easy to use this product. It's really cool to easy to add it to your event. It's really easy to pay when you're done and we'll take great care of your donors, of course, like just making it super frictionless.

[00:11:51] As far as just utilizing for the silent auction, live auction, that was a massive important piece of creating a company and, and just the product in general. We [00:12:00] let an accountant title our sector, the nonprofit sector. I don't know why we'd let an accountant do that. In the same in my space, we let an auctioneer or a series of auctioneers call them consignment items.

[00:12:11] I love auctioneers. I know a lot of auctioneers. I have dear friends that are auctioneers. However, I hate that moniker and, but no one asked me for my input when we got into the space. So anyway, folks call them consignment items. I was on this like soapbox room. I was like, well, they're consignment opportunities.

[00:12:29] Listen, they're fundraising tools. Okay. And you just said it. You're like, Hey, we used to pound the pavement. Local businesses, you know, all this and getting donations and I get it. And what's so cool, and like you hear me say, and you and I have talked about this previously, it's like, okay, we're like donations and we are not here to replace donations.

[00:12:48] As a matter of fact, we coach folks up on how to use donations to raise the most amount of money possible, even at the sake of even using our items, however. Interesting. There's been this precipice as [00:13:00] well over the last number of years where it's been difficult, more and more difficult to ask business owners and corporations and sponsors and whatnot, for cool auction items that will make your silent auction, your live auction and your raffles and online auction stand out and raise money.

[00:13:16] And that's forced us actually to sharpen our pencil, so to speak, and just to make it, just to create a menu of auction items. That are awesome, but they're a value add. We're not here to replace anything in your live auction. We're here to help your live auction. You know, we can add one item that you can sell multiple times at your live auction.

[00:13:35] Silent auction, the whole nine. Great. What's also really cool, I'm going on a ramble here, but what's also really cool about our items is that we're giving folks the opportunity to bid on things that they want. The market's telling us something. As far as, it's very easy for me to be the trips and experience people and go, Hey, travel's crazy popular right now.

[00:13:54] It is. I can't change that. That's just the market telling us that. I, I could tell you all these theories I had. [00:14:00] Hey, you take things away from people like live events, they're gonna clam forward even more. Well, travel got taken away from us a number of years ago, and now the airports are packed and you can barely find a parking spot.

[00:14:10] That's obvious. And so we're just giving donors, supporters at events, the opportunity to bid on things that, that they already buy and also that they just want, as opposed to things that they don't. I hope that helps. 

[00:14:22] Cindy: Yeah, definitely. And so the idea. So we'll call on consignment is organizations. I just wanna like really understand the business model as well, so organizations can sign up to include these things in their auction with you and they only pay for it when it gets sold in their auction and they pay you for the price it's pre-agreed upon and then they keep whatever is left over.

[00:14:53] And I'm curious like in terms of your vendors, how that works in terms of, 'cause you don't, I'm [00:15:00] assuming there's, you don't have like inventory or anything like that. You work with companies that you're almost like this middle, middle person. So you have the donor, the chair, maybe I'm wrong. So tell me about this, but like the donor, the organization, your business.

[00:15:14] Then the actual providers, right? Yeah. So how does that work when you have all those audiences? 

[00:15:22] Trevor: Once again, because I was pretty darn curious when I got in the space, I was like, okay, I see a lot of these companies, the consignment companies are selling everyone else's stuff and selling like third party items and what have you, and repackaging them and all that.

[00:15:39] Identified. That's a really bad experience for the donor. So contrary to that, not trying to disagree with you on purpose. Well, no, I don't anything now. I know. Yeah. Let's go back to the, okay, so, so we have an item, like a Cabo all inclusive stay, and the reserve price is $2,000 and someone puts it in their live auction.

[00:15:50] It sells for four. Yes. The nonprofit profits $2,000. We reach out to the donor immediately post event. Obviously that's [00:16:00] successful for the organization. They identified a $4,000 level giver possibly as well. And then, yes. What's really cool about what we've built is that we created our own hospitality team where every donor is cared for in-house.

[00:16:14] So not because I'm a control freak, a micromanager, but we have end-to-end control of the donor experience. Now it's, I hope this doesn't sound unpopular. Our job is to make sure that the donor experience is at its highest level because, and I say unpopular 'cause our job is to help nonprofits raise money.

[00:16:34] We know our items raise money. We've been doing this long enough. The market has told us plenty about how well it works and the efficacy of these opportunities and these tools. How the equity of the organization more important than ever is the donor that bought that item. We think the worst thing in customer service is silence.

[00:16:51] So we are in front of that donor immediately post event. We actually have a dedicated staff member that calls them to give them, I call, I call it like the [00:17:00] warm and fuzzies. You buy something for $4,000 at an auction, you better be getting a phone call. Otherwise, there's this really interesting statement that I've been hearing a lot lately.

[00:17:08] I think it was like a Brene Brown thing, but I'm paraphrasing where it's like in the absence of information or the absence of fact, folks will connect the dots well. You buy something for $4,000 and someone doesn't reach out to you because there's multiple vendors or whatever, or you have a question, you can't get an answer.

[00:17:22] 'cause there's multiple vendors. That's a problem in any business, right? We're very, very staunch in our approach and we've had plenty of opportunities to sell other people's stuff, so to speak, as I like to call it. But no, we procure our own. We build our own items, and the donors, when they buy that item at auction, only deal with our hospitality team start to finish with all the bells and whistles that come with it and all the.

[00:17:46] Oh gosh. Hey, I lost the email that I got. It's been two years since I bought it. Can I still? Yes, you can. We're in the unique position where we wanna tell people yes, and be a really positive reflection on the organizations that we get the opportunity to help. So [00:18:00] because of that control, I'm just using a loose term, it ends up being best for everyone.

[00:18:04] Yeah. 

[00:18:05] Cindy: Okay. I'd love to talk like volume of business. 'cause I feel like in order to have that control, you have to have volume. 'cause at the end of the day, let's say this trip is valued at $6,000, a donor pays, or let's say it's valued at 5,000, the donor pays four. 'cause we all like a good deal at an auction.

[00:18:22] They're paying, the organization's paying you too. How are you making profit on a $2,000 revenue for something that's valued at $5,000? Yep. That, and then you are like negotiating or booking people travel. Like with, I'm assuming you don't own planes, right? So like where, or hotels. So you have these relationships on the back end, I'm assuming, and it sounds like you need volume to make this.

[00:18:51] Work? Yes. Can you tell us a little bit about what that looks like or the operational side of that? 

[00:18:58] Trevor: I love it. I love it. Yeah. And then [00:19:00] also layer in, yes, the overhead and there's 24 of us on the team and all these things. So I'm putting my business cap on now and I like, 'cause I don't get an opportunity to talk.

[00:19:08] We talk non-profit stuff so much, but there's so much symmetry. I think. When you say volume, what's what's really, what, what really, um, um, sparks my interest is like. Not being afraid of volume. And what I mean by that is even if your margins are thin and you make a little off of a lot, well you have to sell a lot.

[00:19:25] That's just what it boils down to, right? I just so happen to become best friends and business partners with a champion of scale, but also it's not for everybody. Like it's disheartening. And for some folks when it's like I have to sell a lot, like it can be. Very fear driven, right? Like people are just like, oh gosh, I have to do this and I'm very comfortable just in my space and I don't need to scale anything.

[00:19:47] But when you're dealing with like numbers like this and, and trying to affect as many organizations as possible, you could look at it a couple different ways. It could either it's like a this giant insurmountable [00:20:00] hill, or it's just, Hey, listen, we've got a rocking product, we've got a rocking team. We take great care of our clients.

[00:20:06] If you find yourself in a position where you just say, okay, so all I have to do is do exactly what we're doing right now, I just have to do it more. That's a gift. That's not an insurmountable mountain to climb, in my opinion, but that's a big mindset thing where I've never been afraid of volume and stuff like that.

[00:20:22] And I love the scoreboard. Like I'm competitive. I like, you know what I mean? I want to ensure that we're in 10,000 events in three years from now and helping that many organizations. So yeah, scaling and. But it teach their own. It just depends on your model and you know, like what sector you're in, what business you're running and stuff like that.

[00:20:40] But no, it's never been for me, I don't know why. It's just never been a thing where I'm just been afraid of, oh gosh, we have to hit those numbers to make payroll or like this and that. I look at it as a challenge. Of course, we put ourselves in this position and yeah, like I said, I love that. Just we just have to do this, but we just have to do it more.

[00:20:57] Just keep doing what we're doing, nail it, and just do it [00:21:00] more. Okay, cool. It's a big world. I believe in that. Let's do this. You know what I mean? So. That's how I look at that. 

[00:21:06] Jess: That's awesome. And I love that you like that mindset piece for whatever reason comes easy to you. And you said 24 people, which means that everyone needs to be on the same train to move forward.

[00:21:19] And as someone who also manages a team, I know that like some days people are rocking and rolling, sometimes people need to like have a little bit of motivation and Yeah. So I guess I'm wondering like. How do you do that for your team? How do you make sure that all cylinders are firing away so that you can maintain the scale that you're trying to achieve?

[00:21:41] And then I'm also wondering what percentage of your time goes into managing these 24 people versus the marketing that is required to bring in the volume that you need to sustain these margins and all of that? 

[00:21:55] Trevor: Yeah, great question, Jess. Or great series of questions. With [00:22:00] regard to the team, I'm a huge believer in culture.

[00:22:03] I've done like personality tests recently where it's just like, I want everyone to be happy around me. That's just how I am. I don't know, you know, it's like, I guess that would like that. Okay. Right. You just how 

[00:22:13] Cindy: us your personality test results, 

[00:22:14] Trevor: the disc assessment. Have you all done that? I have, yeah. We have all, Hey Jess.

[00:22:18] Cindy: Huh? 

[00:22:18] Trevor: All the folks that come on board do it. Everyone that's been on our team does it. Yeah. I could talk to about that for a minute, and it's good to understand that about yourself. Then also you know about folks that you're bringing on board, right? For sure. Yeah. But I'm a, sorry, I didn't 

[00:22:31] Cindy: mean to cut you off.

[00:22:32] Trevor: No, you're good, Cindy. I'm passionate about that because once again, I never knew that we were gonna grow the company to where it's at, because I didn't have any expectations. Similar to like when you're talking to new clients and partners and stuff like that, it's like you enter new situations with no expectation and just, you never know who you're talking to.

[00:22:48] That's the whole point, right? So I never knew that there were gonna be people that worked at competitors. That said, oh my gosh, I wanna be on that team because obviously I've seen them in, I've [00:23:00] seen them operate and I wanna do what they're doing. I wanna drink from the same well that they're drinking from.

[00:23:05] And I did mention that this business is getting my best version and I'm a big believer in, you said, being patient with yourself. I think I don't. Expect too much from our team because I trust our team, if that makes sense. We've empowered our team to do their job. I, we've been tremendously fortunate. I think we've lost four people in five years, and so we do hire on intuition.

[00:23:36] We hire pretty slow actually sometimes, but just once folks are in the fold, we understand that we need to be patient with them. We need to empower them. Because that's what I do to my, that's what I do for myself. You know what I mean? If that makes sense. And I spend a tremendous amount of time now with having a staff this big.

[00:23:54] I'm not the CEO of our organization. My partner is, but I'm very high touch. The way [00:24:00] I'm talking to you right now is how I talk to everybody on our team. I make it my business to understand what's going on with people on our team. I make it my business to reach out to them regularly. And to be helpful and to not tell them how to do their job, frankly.

[00:24:16] I mean, we have like a bunch of first round draft pick type talent on our team. A lot of that has happened from us empowering them since they've been on the bus, so to speak. But our big thing is let's get good people on the bus and we can even figure out where they sit later. Do you know what I mean?

[00:24:32] And we haven't made too many. Once again, we haven't made too many mistakes 'cause I made so many other mistakes in previous iterations and so has my partner too. It's been pretty blissful. But I'm patient with our team and all that good stuff. 'cause I'm patient with myself. I don't expect the world right away.

[00:24:48] I think we just get in this, you know, we, I have to have everything right now and all that. I know that sounds weird and and common, but it's true. It's like we have great people. We are doing some amazing work [00:25:00] that's obvious. The organizations that we get to touch and help. But you know, most of my day now is literally doing what we're doing.

[00:25:08] We have a pod, we have a webinar, LinkedIn obviously. And then yeah, just spending time with our team. I love that kind of stuff. I just, so it's been really, really, you know, simple for me to get with that right as we've grown. But hey, I also remember when we had, our first employee was my sister. I call her patient Zero.

[00:25:25] Our second employee was my partner's daughter. The director of our hospitality team got breast cancer, and she's still the director of our hospitality team, and she's still with us. Like I've been, we've been through some shit. But when you do that and you go through those things and you still make payroll and you're still creating new partnerships and all these things, it's okay.

[00:25:44] Yeah. It's like it'll work out. It's inevitable. You're always gonna go through that. You're always gonna be in the mud, but you only get better as a result too. So, yeah. 

[00:25:54] Cindy: Again, I have so many questions. 

[00:25:57] Trevor: Do it. 

[00:25:57] Cindy: I'm gonna ask two and you can choose the order [00:26:00] to answer them.

[00:26:01] So my first question is actually, you mentioned before family business, and you just talked about how your family is involved in the business, and I'd love for you to just elaborate on what that means for you and how you envision that in the future. But then the other question I wanted to ask, which is maybe a shorter answer.

[00:26:20] Is like of this staff of 24, if you were to divide them into like administrative or operations sales and then like client delivery. I'm just curious what the percentage or like what that pie chart looks like. So I don't know. You get to choose your, let's start. Yeah. 

[00:26:38] Trevor: Yeah. And then I'll, I'll come back to you 'cause my mind is crazy answering three questions at once, but anyway.

[00:26:43] Okay. A dream building a family business has been a dream. For me personally, I always wanted to be that person. I really did. I really did. I hit the absolute jackpot with business partners, as I mentioned. Jason, I don't know if you've seen him on the pod or what have you. [00:27:00] He was my best client. He's my best friend.

[00:27:02] We get to run a company together and it's growing and it's awesome, and we travel together and our wives get along and we talk every day. And I've learned more from him than anyone in my adult years. He's my elder by 12, but he makes me feel like I could run through walls. So I'm a big believer in surrounding yourself with people.

[00:27:24] 'cause you cannot do this alone. Nonprofit professionals feel like they can do things alone too. I feel that, and there's so much symmetry. The longer I'm in this space, the more I understand the similarity. Just by growing a nonprofit and growing a company, it's just different tax designations, but it's unpopular, I think for folks to go.

[00:27:42] I wanna start a family business and hire my friends and my family. But I'm an open-minded cat, so it's like I could trust my sister. She's my best friend growing up, right? I could trust my sister. She lived with me for a number of years. Heck, she was living with me when we started the company. She's seven years younger than [00:28:00] me, and I.

[00:28:03] I told her it was gonna be hard and she hung in there with me. And there's like a lot of loyalty there, right? And so everyone would say like, don't do that. Don't hire your friends, don't hire your friends. And I'm the opposite. I'm just like, those are the people that you can roll with. Those are the people you can trust.

[00:28:16] And hey, when you start a company, if it doesn't work out, you gotta move quick. You know what I mean? If you gotta fire quick, so to speak, I don't wanna be disparaging to people, right? But you get my point. You gotta make changes for the betterment of this living, breathing thing that you're creating. So it's been amazing.

[00:28:30] We have families that are working within the organization that I'm not related to. That's how cool it's gotten and to create this thing that people are so on board with. Once again, I couldn't have written this on a vision board like how cool it's been. And it's not even about the money. That's the thing.

[00:28:49] I like playing the game. I wanna destroy and meet as many events as possible. I'm very competitive. It just turned into this amazing living, breathing thing that people vibe with. But it's been a people [00:29:00] exercise, that's the thing. And I didn't know that my brother-in-law was gonna work with us until we're hanging out in the backyard and my sister goes, Hey, he's a fireman.

[00:29:09] We just had a baby. My niece. He's gone a lot fighting fires. It would be really awesome because he's intelligent and young and open to coming on board. It'd be really cool if he could work with HGA and I'm like, oh my gosh, I love him too. You know what I mean? He's my brother. Yeah. And I, I didn't have that idea, like, why didn't I have that idea?

[00:29:30] Because I just open to it and it's been, he's in the next office over and absolutely destroys. He's a hero. He's a fireman. You know what I mean? It's, of course he's gonna come in and help nonprofits raise money and be great at it. You know what I mean? So, yeah, it's pretty cool. Okay. Yeah. 

[00:29:47] Cindy: So we'll come back to the other question I had before 'cause I wanna ask Jess and I, and like within our peers, we often will talk about the long game with our business.

[00:29:56] Are we in this to sell? A lot of people are [00:30:00] just like the things, well sunset when I sunset. How does the longevity of the business and like a business past you and Jason, what does that look like? As you think of tying that back to the idea of building a family business, we have an exit strategy. What would you like to see happen when you're ready to move on to something else or retire?

[00:30:24] Trevor: That's a great question because we talk about it all the time. And you know what we say, what else are we going to do? Because we love the work. Honestly. It's like, I hope I'm just not like this goofy, smiling idiot. Just going like, we love the work. The work is amazing, and we are not even scratching the surface.

[00:30:45] So a couple things to what you say. One, we have a startup mentality, like we're still really scrappy. We're still very competitive. I don't take anything for granted. I've been through everything in business that you could possibly imagine. Loss, all the [00:31:00] above, right? Made every mistake that there is with people as well, with teams and hiring, all that good stuff, right?

[00:31:05] And here we find ourselves and what's also really cool, the exit has never been a conversation. And once again, to each their own. I love it. If you can build this beautiful thing and have an eight figure exit. Amazing. I want everyone to win. I don't really care if that's your thing and that's what you wanna do, and you get those kinds of offers, fantastic.

[00:31:25] But what's really cool about what we're building is that we never built it to exit, and we've always maintained the same startup mentality. We built it to scale. We built it to be the biggest and the best, most importantly, because I think that being the best first will create the outcome that we want.

[00:31:43] So hope that helps. 

[00:31:45] Jess: Totally. So you seem like a really like glass half full, like very positive, like high energy guy. And I'm just curious, has there ever been any challenges or rough spots or maybe things that didn't go [00:32:00] exactly your way and if so, like where did those come from? Was that in like client acquisition?

[00:32:05] Was that in hiring? Was that in cash flow? Then where do you go to either, I know you have your business partner who sounds like a super intelligent dude and Cindy and I talk about this all the time, how helpful it is to have a partner like that that you can like bounce back and forth ideas off of. But yeah, I'm just curious, has it always been smooth sailing or has there ever been any rough patch and what did you do to come out of it?

[00:32:30] Trevor: Yeah. Fair. Yeah, I am that way. I've actually been so bad. I was given a gift of just the optimism. I, I've had a problem in my life where I actually saw, like in my twenties, high-paced sales, where I actually saw a professional about it. 'cause I was like, I don't even stay down when I get really kicked hard, I should probably like, really take a second and think about these.

[00:32:52] It was basically like personal relationships, right? It'd be like I couldn't keep a girlfriend or whatever. I, I'm calling out to the lines here, but I was like, I want to have [00:33:00] good relationships with people and I just knew that I had a really hard time listening. Like I was just moving too fast and too optimistic and I.

[00:33:07] So I've had a problem with even like taking the, the lows. Not seriously enough, I think is the way I would look at it, right? But I was given a gift, Hey, listen, I grew up poor. I have no idea what wealth looks like. I love my parents. My dad's an alcoholic. Really rough. I was working for the family business very young, and so I've experienced all sorts of muck.

[00:33:27] I don't know how much I wanna get into it, but yeah, a lot. But nonetheless, I wake up every day with, like I said, just. Feeling like, okay, this is a great opportunity no matter what. There are going to be setbacks. You're gonna experience loss. When I said I experienced like death since I've been in business and monetary loss and all these things, that's inevitable.

[00:33:50] People are always talking about the hits. Do you know what I mean? We don't spend enough time talking about the misses and how to avoid those. Whether or not folks wanna be coachable or enough, they're inevitable. I've [00:34:00] probably said that a couple times. There are going to be misses. There's. Always an outcome.

[00:34:05] It's rarely I'm gonna lose everything. And so the way that I keep my cup full, especially, I'm 45 now. I keep my cup full by not expecting Hercule efforts out of myself. Frankly. I know my output is really high. I don't expect anyone else to have the same output. If you do, wow, I'm gonna like Marvel. I'm really, really secure and self-aware now to where, like I mentioned, I want everyone to win.

[00:34:36] If someone's crushing and they have higher output than me, hey, hat's off to you, and I will respect that. I know what works for me. Like I said, I'm 45 years old. This is not my first rodeo, and I surround myself with impeccable people, not just good people. I'm very choosy. I have a million friends. However, I don't spend time with a million people.

[00:34:58] I do notice now that I do notice how [00:35:00] conversations make me feel after I'm done. I'm very sensitive. I do understand how business interactions make me feel when I'm done, and I become exceptionally choosy about being intentional with my time. And then, like I said, being self-aware and understanding what fills my cup.

[00:35:18] I dropped outta college because I'm an entrepreneur, and college wasn't built for me, but I faked it. Until I got my junior college degree, I dropped outta college and I started running ultra marathons professionally. And so I was killing myself in the mountains, running ultra marathons and all that stuff.

[00:35:35] And my first real job not working for the family business was in sales. And I came outta running ultra marathons in my mid twenties going, okay, you want me to just talk to people on the phone? And do this? That's easy for me. So I identified as well. It's like I love being outside. I swam in a lake this morning before we got in the pod, because I've got a triathlon in eight weeks.

[00:35:55] It's like always having something cool like that, maybe in the works. And so I don't [00:36:00] wanna get into long dissertation about physical exertion, but that's been really amazing for me. And just being like swimming or on a bike or running because I got into a triathlon, all that kind of stuff. And. Moving I realize has been amazing for me.

[00:36:12] 'cause I am crazy high energy, right? I need to get some of that out. And so once again, just the self-awareness thing, it's like I realize that's what makes me tick so, 

[00:36:20] Cindy: so much. I feel like we could keep having this conversation and dive into I so many of those. Unfortunately we don't have. It's all good.

[00:36:24] Sometimes take, but maybe for another time. But yeah, like Jess and I have talked about, like Jess has her walks and oftentimes that's a really. Important part of our work. Like so, so often people feel like it's these two sort of separate, live separate worlds, but that they're so interconnected and having the time and space and stepping away from things so.

[00:36:47] So much there, but we do not have all the time in the world, unfortunately. So we have to ask for a confession. So what is something that maybe [00:37:00] about your business or about running a business that you wouldn't necessarily share everywhere, but 'cause this is a safe space and we wouldn't see it from the outside that you think other people would benefit from?

[00:37:14] Trevor: I heard something recently that really resonated with me. Which was, be nice to everyone. That's nice to you and nothing more. And so I started, like when we, I started the company and started things started like really clicking. I started writing down some rules for myself. And what was interesting was, like I mentioned, like making friends and with your business it's okay to be friendly with people 'cause they wanna work with you as a result.

[00:37:38] And it, it comes easy for you. Great. But it was be nice to everyone because you never know who you're talking to. It was like my one massive rule. You gotta be nice to yourself 'cause you can't give what you don't have. That was another like subtitle to that rule. But I heard something really recently because I mentioned about being protective with your time and growing and at this stage now I've really been able to [00:38:00] identify people that I can work with.

[00:38:03] I wanna work with a lot of people. Trust me. But I also, I don't know if we mentioned this on our pod, Cindy, when we talk with you, is like people can smell bullshit from a mile away better than they ever have. I think given how digitized the world is right now, well that means my bullshit meter's getting really good too, and there's so much out there and there's so many people to work with that I think just.

[00:38:29] Not being overly selective. I heard something recently. It's like, be nice to everyone that's nice to you and nothing more. And when you're, when you're a really nice person, then yeah, that's great. That should be easy. That doesn't mean you're gonna be a, you know what to somebody else, but especially when you're running a company and you've got people that depend on you.

[00:38:48] Time is of the essence. It's we're into folks that are gonna pour into you. 

[00:38:52] Cindy: Yeah. Okay. I just wanna unpack that a little bit 'cause I think it's a really interesting saying. So on the one hand it's like, be nice to everyone, [00:39:00] right? 

[00:39:00] Trevor: Yeah. 

[00:39:00] Cindy: Put niceness kindness out into the world. 

[00:39:03] Trevor: I think you should. That's a problem for you.

[00:39:03] Yeah, that's, 

[00:39:03] Cindy: yeah. Don't be an asshole is like fundamental rule. But then also there's this piece almost about reciprocity, which is. Be nice is a baseline, but don't overinvest in the relationships that don't invest in you as well. Is that what I'm interpreting as your interpretation of it? Which is like there are some people who you go beyond the nice with, which is for beyond the baseline.

[00:39:18] It's reciprocal, so don't put so, so much into people who don't. Feedback is that I'm gonna 

[00:39:18] Trevor: go, yeah, tell me or tell me your interpretation. I'm tracking with you a hundred percent. I'm gonna go even like wider lens and go, Hey listen, you're in this spot for a reason. Okay. I'm not even talking about, hey, it has to equate my time.

[00:39:25] Has to equate to dollars. No, that's not what I'm saying at all. I'm saying you started a company, you're at this point. You got yourself to where you're at. I don't think people do a really good job of congratulating themselves, frankly, for where they're at. Okay, you're a successful person. You know a little bit about this, right?

[00:39:41] So our definition of success is a whole nother conversation. Your gut is strong or you wouldn't be where you're at now if you're horrible at maintaining relationships, if you're horrible at building business and uh, getting new clients on board and all, that's a whole nother conversation to have. Listen your gut's strong, okay?

[00:39:58] Trust your gut. That's what I'm [00:40:00] saying about just like. Pour into the people that you're like, okay, I vibe with this person. Yeah. It doesn't have to equate into making the cash register, make the sound. It doesn't have to equate into transact. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm just literally talking about, it's like, is it one plus one equal equals two synergy or is it like one plus one is five or more.

[00:40:17] Okay. Yeah. Your gut will tell you that. Okay. You know what I mean? Like we understand people well enough now to know that. So yeah. Hope that helps. So 

[00:40:23] Cindy: like surround yourself with the people who you can collectively build each other up and bring out no question. The best in each other. 

[00:40:30] Trevor: Absolutely. 

[00:40:31] Cindy: Yeah. 

[00:40:31] Trevor: And not the opposite.

[00:40:33] Cindy: Yeah. It's a giant 

[00:40:34] Trevor: waste of your time. Yeah. You're gonna get mad 'cause you didn't, you lost that time and you can't get it back. 

[00:40:38] Cindy: Definitely love that. Okay. Amazing. So Trevor, where can our listeners connect with you? What's the best way to be in touch if they have questions or wanna chat more? 

[00:40:52] Trevor: I mean, we're getting really prolific and spending a ton of time on LinkedIn, so if you, if reach out to me, Trevor Nelson on LinkedIn.

[00:40:58] Love to connect. As [00:41:00] mentioned, we put our best information out for free. We have our weekly podcast. Hey nonprofits, you can see us. On LinkedIn there as well, if you want, or YouTube, apple, Spotify, anywhere you consume pods. So it'd be great to just hear from anybody. Company's hga fundraising.com. But yeah, more into having a conversation is helping folks however we can.

[00:41:18] So LinkedIn's probably the easiest, so yeah. 

[00:41:21] Cindy: Amazing. 

[00:41:22] Trevor: Yeah. 

[00:41:22] Cindy: Thanks for joining us. 

[00:41:24] Trevor: I appreciate you having me. Yeah, thanks so much. 

[00:41:28] Cindy: Thank you again for listening to the Confessions podcast for nonprofit coaches and consultants. If you enjoyed today's episode, which I sure hope you did, you can join your support 

[00:41:38] Jess: in one of three ways.

[00:41:39] Number one, post a screenshot of this episode to your Instagram stories or LinkedIn profile. And tag Cindy and I so we can repost you. Number two, share this podcast with a fellow nonprofit coach or consultant. And number three, leave a positive review on Apple Podcasts that we can continue to grow and reach new listeners.

[00:41:58] And of course, make sure you [00:42:00] subscribe so you can get the latest and greatest interviews as they drop. Every Thursday and to our fellow nonprofit coaching and consulting friends, remember we're an open book and here to answer your burning biz questions. See you next time.

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