The Brochure on Spring, Fundraising and Las Vegas?

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Spring has arrived with its characteristic light green foliage, flourishing plants, and yes—even weeds. This season of renewal offers the perfect backdrop for reflecting on transitions in both personal and professional life.

After four years of working on my garden, I've finally feel like I've accomplished something.  Like I'm maintaining more than I'm redoing and creating now.  It's a good feeling.   Anyone who has undertaken a major project understands the profound satisfaction of shifting from constant development to simply maintaining what you've built. 

Meanwhile, my fundraising work continues with both challenges and unexpected victories. Working with a new organization means building sponsor relationships from scratch, yet we've already surpassed last year's results and secured a local TV news anchor as our event MC. This partnership is already showing results with our social media!  

Creating my first online silent auction has proven both challenging and rewarding, with over 60 prizes secured already. One prize that used to be easy to secure was a Las Vegas hotel.  Now things are different and Las Vegas is transforming from the days of complimentary rooms and affordable dining to today's landscape of parking fees and reduced staffing. 

Whether you're tending a garden, building professional relationships, or simply appreciating the changing seasons, I hope you'll join me in recognizing patterns of renewal in your own life. Follow the Only Child Diaries podcast, share with friends who might need these reflections, and let's navigate this season together.

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Episode Transcript

Tracy (00:02):
Welcome to the Only Child Diaries podcast.
I'm your host, Tracy Wallace.
Have you ever felt like youdidn't receive the how-to
brochure on life, that youdidn't get enough guidance about
major life issues?
So did I.
You don't have to be an onlychild to feel this way.
In my podcast, we'll exploresome of the best ways to better

(00:26):
navigate adulting, while doingso with humor and light.
Welcome everyone to the OnlyChild Diaries.
Today I'm talking about renewal.
It's Easter today when I'mrecording this.

(00:49):
It's Easter this week.
Spring is a time of renewal,right, but in general, I'm
thinking a lot about renewal.
This week.
There's been some highs andthere's always some lows, right.
I've been working in the yard alot because now I feel like I'm

(01:13):
almost to the point where I'mjust maintaining.
All these last four years thatwe've been in the house, I've
been trying to grow and developthe garden and now I feel like
I'm at a point where I'mmaintaining it and that's a much
better place to be.
There's still some things thatI want to do to it.

(01:36):
There's still some things thatI need to clean and prep and
clean up and fix and everything,but in general, I feel like I'm
more at a maintenance levelthan anything.
Spring is just such a greatseason.
I used to enjoy the summer morefor some reason, but now that
I'm older I don't enjoy the heatas much.

(01:58):
So spring is great.
Everything is green.
So spring is great.
Everything is green green, youknow that light green color.
All the plants are happy,there's extra new growth to them
and it's just a wonderful timeto see all the trees and the

(02:20):
bushes and the flowers and birdsand everybody's happy.
So that's great.
And the weeds?
Let's not forget the weeds.
The fundraising event that I'mworking on is coming along not
as well as I had hoped.
Sponsorship is always achallenge getting sponsorship,
and I think I'm doing well,considering that it's a new

(02:43):
organization that I'm workingwith and I have no relationships
with any of the previoussponsors or any of the
prospective sponsors.
So I'm trying to remain hopefulabout that.
We have about five and a halfweeks to go.
I have beat last year's record,but last year wasn't that great

(03:09):
, but at least I've beat thatnumber right, so that's good.
I did secure a local TV newsanchor to be our MC, and you
might not think that that reallygives you that much, but it

(03:33):
does help elevate the event.
It helps give you credibilityand this event and this
organization hasn't had any ofthat interaction before that I
know of.
I don't think they have,certainly not for this event.
It's only the fourth annual andwe did a Instagram post and

(04:01):
asked this anchor it's MeganTellis of KTLA, so it's very
local.
It's a very local Los Angeles,southern California person, but
we did ask her to collaboratewith us on the Instagram post
and the result was that ourInstagram post blew up, which

(04:24):
was good.
We usually get anywhere fromfive to 25 likes on a post and
the last time I looked we wereover 900.
So that was good.
Does it bring us any dollarsright away?
No, but it is free publicityand it gets the word out and it

(04:45):
gets our name out.
So I'm happy about that.
I was happy that I was able tobring that to fruition and you
can never say no to freepublicity, right?
I think that KTLA's alreadydone a great job of partnering

(05:06):
with us on this event, so I'mvery happy about that.
Fundraising is, at best, adifficult, challenging
profession and I've enjoyed it alot.
I know a lot of people don'tenjoy asking for things,
especially asking for money, butI don't usually have a problem

(05:31):
with it.
Sometimes I get a little cringyabout asking certain people for
certain things, if it's a bitof a stretch, sometimes if
you've already asked somebodyfor a lot of things and you ask
for one more thing.
Ask for one more thing and coldcalls.
Cold calls are a little bitchallenging sometimes, but you

(05:57):
reap what you sow, I guess, andwhen you get a yes, it's always
pretty exciting.
I think I've done a good job,though, in fundraising for the
event, because a lot of theprevious sponsors have come in
and you can say that, okay, well, they've already sponsored you

(06:19):
and that you know you're askingthem again and it's something
that they would have done anywayand okay, yes, but I also feel
that right now it's a verycomplicated time financially a
little bit more conservativewith their money and with their

(06:45):
donations, of course.
So I think we've done prettywell.

(07:15):
Working on an event is somethingthat, if you're a regular
listener and you listen to myepisode about how I came to be a
fundraiser way back, way, wayback when in the first year of
my podcast you'll remember andI'll remind you if you haven't
listened to it when I firststarted out, wanted to get into

(07:35):
fundraising or development, asit's called.
I really thought that I wantedto work in events because I had
done some events in theneighborhood where my business
was and I really enjoyed theenergy.
I really enjoyed the excitementof asking for something and
getting a yes Right.

(07:55):
And so I thought I wanted towork in events and I, you know,
went to USC and I applied for ajob in events, but they weren't
hiring for that right away.
And so they said, well, we needa person in foundation and

(08:17):
corporate relations.
And I got that job, thinkingthat I would wait and I would
take the job and I would waituntil they were hiring for the
special events job and I wouldget that.
Well, it turned out that Iliked the foundation and
corporate relations job so muchthat I kept it.
And then, when I went on andworked in events later on, I
thought what was I thinking?

(08:37):
It's just, it takes so muchenergy and it takes so much.
You know it's so stressfulsometimes.
What was I thinking?
But in the end, I think I doenjoy working on events.
It's exhausting, it's true, andI think that I could never do
wedding planning, doing eventafter event after event after

(09:01):
event, or helping out in themarketing catering departments
of a hotel.
I think that would.
I mean it wouldn't be my event,right, but still so I think,
considering that the economyright now is a little you know,
with the stock market andeverything, the economy is a

(09:22):
little tight.
Needless to say, I think I'mdoing pretty well, so that's
where we are with that.

(09:43):
I have been scouring the worldat large for auction prizes
because I'm going to puttogether a silent auction online
.
This is the first time that theagency that I'm working for has
done this, has had this, andit's actually the first time
I've ever done this either.
So I'm learning as I go and I'mtrying to figure it out, and
it's challenging, needless tosay, but I think it's going to

(10:05):
turn out great because peopleeverywhere will be able to bid
and win these prizes and I'vegotten some great things.
I spent a lot of timesoliciting these prizes online
and that's how you do it now.
I mean, most of them you canrequest online.

(10:25):
So that was a lot of fun andI've gotten 60 or so.
As a team, we've gotten 60 orso prizes and I think there's
more to come.
So very excited about that, andI've asked for certain things

(10:46):
outside of the Los Angeles area.
It used to be easy to get like ahotel in Las Vegas to
contribute.
But everything that I'm readingabout Las Vegas is that some of
the hotels have closed.
Some of the ones off the striphave closed.

(11:06):
Some of the ones on the striphave really pulled back on their
staffing to a large extent.
They have really cut theirstaffing substantially and I
guess that the Vegas that weknew and loved is not quite the

(11:28):
same, which makes me really sad,because Vegas was, and I'm sure
there's still, some good spotsthere and good things to do.
Um, but Vegas used to be so muchfun and back in the day when I
first started going, you knowyou could.
You could get a free room, youcould get a really cheap meal.

(11:49):
I mean, okay, you had a goodchance of getting sick, maybe
over it, but maybe it went andmaybe it wasn't the healthiest
meal ever.
You know, fried food, greasyfood, whatever.
But uh, it was a lot of fun.
And so in today's world they'vethey've changed things.

(12:14):
I think you can get you canstill get free, free rooms if
you're, you know, good at whatyou do, but getting cheaper
meals, I mean it's betterquality food.
So that's okay.
But you know, the strip startedto charge for parking, which was
like come on, you know you'regetting all of our money, you

(12:35):
don't need to charge for parking.
You're getting all of our money, you don't need to charge for
parking and you have a lot ofparking available.
So that seemed like kind of abad idea to me.
Anyway, what do I know?
So these are some of the thingsthat I'm thinking about and
doing this week and lookingforward to gosh, it's already

(12:57):
almost May, so then that's goingto be the beginning of summer.
But, getting ahead of myself, Ihope you have had a great week
and you've had a great holiday,wherever you are.
Maybe it's not a holiday whereyou're listening, or you haven't

(13:18):
had a holiday where you'relistening, but I hope that
everybody's staying safe andhappy and doing what you want to
do and enjoying the spring.
And well, that's all I have fortoday.
Next week we'll tackle anothertopic together.
I hope you'll join me.

(13:39):
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(14:05):
Child Diaries Podcast.
Thanks for listening.
I'm Tracy Wallace and these arethe Only Child Diaries.