May 6, 2025 • 30 mins
We unpack the critical business side of nonprofits with Karria Lawrence, founder of Pretty Girls Pray and Archetype & Co, exploring how strategic planning and organizational structure enable mission fulfillment.
Here are some key takeaways:
• Strategic planning serves as the foundation for nonprofit success by creating clarity, preventing mission drift, and identifying what moves the needle
• Properly documenting processes allows leaders to step out of daily operations and focus on strategic growth
• Identifying team members' natural gifts ensures people are placed in roles where they can make the greatest impact
• Breaking goals into shorter "sprints" (30-60 days) creates focus and urgency that leads to faster accomplishment
• Strategic plans should be living documents that can adapt during financial strain while maintaining core objectives
Connect with Karria Lawrence on all social platforms @karriaconsult, visit her company at arketypeand.co, or learn about her nonprofit at prettgyrlzpray.org.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hey, nonprofit friends, welcome to the Spring
Forward podcast, where we talkabout all things nonprofit, from
board discord to grant writingand strategic planning tips.
If you're an executive director, nonprofit board member or just
someone heavily involved in thenonprofit sector, then this is
the podcast for you.
Let's spring forward intoexcellence.
(00:24):
Welcome, welcome, guys, toanother episode of the Spring
Forward podcast.
I'm your host, springRichardson Perry, and I'm super
excited today to bring you MsKia Lawrence.
She is the founder of PrettyGirls Pray, which is a nonprofit
(00:47):
that's dedicated to empoweringgirls who have experienced
trauma.
She focuses on trauma recovery,self-esteem building and life
skills development, and what'sreally awesome is that she also
has a for-profit company calledArchetype Co.
Which is a strategic planningand operational consulting firm,
(01:08):
and so she is really good atthe business of business, and so
that is what we're going to betalking about today the business
of nonprofits, and so I amsuper excited to have miss
Kariya on to talk to us aboutthis, so welcome thank you so
much for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Absolutely.
I'm super excited to talk aboutthis because this is one of
those things that's always kindof overlooked in the nonprofit
sector.
Right is the business side,Because, yes, we're in it to
serve, we're in it to help, butit's still a business and we
have to be mindful of that.
So I'm really excited to liftthis up today to really talk
(01:50):
about this, to share someinsights that you have.
But I want to start with firsttelling us what you do in your
for-profit business and how itrelates to the nonprofit side of
things.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Yes, so in my for-profit company, Archetype Co
, we actually come into smallorganizations and help them
structure their company, buildout processes and actually
design their systems to put inplace for them to either have
(02:24):
more impact, createsustainability and also create
some transparency amongst theirteam and allow, like the owner
or the founder to not be theoperator so much within the
company, to begin to startdelegating and delegate properly
and even the people that theymay have on the team for them to
(02:44):
take ownership within theiractual roles, so that way they
can design KPIs, put you knowreal, true sales metrics in
place and start focusing more onstrategy than the doing of the
thing.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Yes, that is super important, and I think people
don't realize how much thismakes sense and how much this
actually moves the businessforward, as opposed to you as
either the owner of thefor-profit or the founder of the
nonprofit.
When you're in the daily grind,it's hard for you to push the
(03:22):
needle forward for the overallbusiness machine itself, and so
when you start to put thesesystems and these processes and
these sound structures in place,it makes it so much easier for
things to move forward and foryou to really start to scale and
(03:43):
to really start to see thebusiness itself be a business.
So I love to hear that, becauseI think people in the nonprofit
world really forget about this.
So I want to take a step backfor a moment, though, and now
talk about your nonprofit.
Let's shift over to that partof things, because I want to
(04:05):
talk about what your nonprofitis, what you do in it, but then
also how you help nonprofits toreally scale and structure and
build sustainable organizations.
So talk to us about Pretty Girl.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Yeah.
So Pretty Girls Pray is anonprofit that was given to me,
of course, like most founders,out of typically either pain or
an experience that some of usmay have had in life.
So, personally, I'm a survivorof physical and sexual abuse
(04:42):
from childhood and so I decidedto.
Physical and sexual abuse fromchildhood, and so I decided to.
Not, I decided.
Actually, god gave me thevision to start this nonprofit,
probably a little bit over,probably when I was in my teens,
to be honest with you, and Ialways wanted to be a director
of a school board, but I neversaw myself necessarily becoming
(05:05):
an entrepreneur, so to speak.
I just thought that thenonprofit would be something
kind of small, maybe an afterschool program, something like
that, but nothing to the scaleof what the vision that he is
currently showing me.
And so, you know, we startedthe nonprofit basically just
working with.
First we start working with,like girls that I was just
(05:28):
connected with through you know,friends of you know in my
direct community, whether it bechurch or what have you.
Then I got assigned to troubledyouth through my church 10
years ago, so they were alreadycoming out of detention centers
but they were like in a grouphome.
So I was assigned to them andworking with them and then from
(05:51):
there I just kind of grew andstarted doing navigating things
on my own.
I had did my first likefundraiser, um, probably like
eight years ago.
It was a fashion show, and so Ihad never, I didn't have a
platform, I didn't have, Ididn't know anybody.
(06:12):
It was in Atlanta, um, ended upbeing in Buckhead and ended up
being a sold out show and I hadover 50 volunteers.
I did not hardly know anybody,but God had literally had
designed people to crossingpaths with people that, just you
know, showed up and um andblessed and blessed me and so,
um, so yeah, it was definitely agreat experience.
(06:34):
The next one I did was at CityHall in Atlanta, um, and that
was a true learning experience,because at that time I had over
107 volunteers and people didn'teven know I was the one that
was putting on the show.
So from there I just be able tojust do different things, from
summer camps to just differentprograms and just outreaches for
(07:00):
the girls.
Right now I'm in Cleveland,ohio, partnering with schools
and nonprofits as a resource.
Well, that's what I do rightnow.
So we went to like smallprograms to actually now
partnering with schools andother nonprofits as a resource
for trauma-informed services.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
That's awesome.
I love to hear those types ofstories.
And you know, it's unfortunatethat you have this experience.
That causes you to reflect andbe like what can I do to help
others?
So it's have doesn't what wehave, doesn't the other right,
because you experienced thistrauma, which in and of itself
(07:39):
is an unfortunate situation, butthe blessing in it is that God
gives you this vision to ensurethat there's support for anyone
else who's experienced a similarsituation.
And so I love, love, love whatyou're doing.
We have a nonprofit, my husbandand I, that is youth focused as
(08:02):
well, and its focus is on youngmen, young boys, because we
don't have a lot of focus on ouryoung boys.
And so it's a life skillsprogram as well, and I love to
hear when you're focused onhelping young people to develop
into good human beings who aregoing to function well in
(08:26):
society, despite whatever thecircumstance is.
And so, as I'm listening to youand you're talking about the
fundraisers that you puttogether me in the nonprofit
world, fundraising especiallywhen you're doing an event, the
planning behind this is nuts,and so you know this is, but,
(08:47):
but this is what you do, right,the, the organizing, the
strategic planning, those sortsof things.
And so I want to, I want tojump into that and just kind of
talk about strategic planning inand of itself and how important
this is for nonprofits, andmoving forward Talk to me about
that.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
I feel like strategic planning is probably one of the
core pieces that needs tohappen in any organization, but
especially nonprofits, becauseyou do have so many moving
pieces and variables that couldpredict whether you know how
many people that you are lookingto connect with outreach impact
(09:27):
, as well as how many donors orsponsorships that you may need
for the year to sustain and whatgrants and opportunities and
fellowships that are out therefor you to connect with to be
able to grow and to be able togrow.
And so strategic planning, Ifeel like, should be the
foundation of what allnonprofits do, At least do, one
(09:51):
at the top of the year and onemaybe towards the end of the
year.
It has to happen.
It allows the team to flow withclarity, for you to be able to
assign and also look back onwhat worked well and what didn't
work well, and put somelanguage to you know and
(10:12):
reminders as to why you're doingwhat you're doing, Because
sometimes it can be very easy toget in the mundane of things in
the day-to-day or have lifehappening if you're just doing
your non-profit part-time andnot really focusing on what
(10:33):
needs to happen to move theneedle.
Strategic planning helps youidentify what needs to move the
needle in the business.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
I love that, because I think this is a part that a
lot of organizations miss,because strategic planning gets
everyone on the same page.
It gets everyone on one accordto understanding this is what
our vision is.
This is why we're here to servewhat our purpose is, because
(11:07):
sometimes there's this missiondrift right, where we've set out
with one mission and let's saywith yours it's helping young
girls with trauma, right, butthen in doing so, sometimes you
start to drift over to oh well,we're helping them with trauma
and then, instead of focusing onthe life skills aspect of it,
(11:30):
you start going more into mentalhealth, and while that's a part
of it, right, the overallmission, from what I'm
understanding, is is the, theskills, the life skills, the
tools, the resources to be ableto really, to really be able to
move forward and live a fruitfullife.
And so, you know, sometimes wejust have those.
(11:52):
We have those moments where wegot to all sit down at the table
again.
We got to talk about okay, thisis why we're here, this is what
we're doing and this is how wesee ourselves moving forward.
And I find that, um, I find thatnonprofits don't put enough
emphasis on this, um, and andthey don't put enough resources
(12:15):
aside um to do this, and notthat it takes a lot of resources
but, if you don't understandwhat strategic planning is and
you don't really know how to doit and how to make it work for
your organization, then you haveto have resources to bring a
professional in to help you.
(12:35):
And so you know what I mean.
And so I just think that Idon't think that many nonprofits
really understand how importantstrategic planning is and
they're kind of just winging it.
And it shows sometimes, youknow.
And so I want to say I want tosay this, because this is
(12:57):
something else that youmentioned right, it's stepping
out of the day-to-day operationsso that you can have a 360 view
of what's happening in theorganization.
But how does the leader do that?
How do you help them do that?
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Well, it does take time, but it's just easily done,
honestly, through one, gettingeverything out of your head that
you do do and actuallydocumenting the processes.
Once the processes aredocumenting, then knowing how to
properly train and equip theright people and also finding
(13:35):
the right who's that you needand understanding where your
deficits are.
So there are quite a it'ssimple, but it's quite a few
just different steps that needto happen before putting someone
in a particular role.
The danger is, a lot of times,people, especially in nonprofits
, just whoever can volunteer,whoever can get in.
You know whoever can do this.
(13:56):
You know we allow them to do it, but without identifying you
know where their gifts are.
Identifying you know wheretheir gifts are, and so you
could be putting somebody inadmin that could be really
gifted in just sales andoutreach, that can be closing on
some deals, and so it's justyou know being able to properly
equip yourself, to know how toidentify the who's that are on
(14:19):
your team and identify exactlywhere your deficits are and how
you're going to, you know,employ those people.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Well, and that's super important too, and I want
to talk about this because youknow, like you said, you may
have someone in the wrong space,right, because they may be
gifted in one area, but you havethem doing something else
because you don't understand howto identify those gifts, right?
So how do we identify that?
(14:53):
How do we engage our employeesor volunteers or whomever that
is helping us?
How do we engage them so thatwe can properly identify those
gifts and put them in the rightplaces?
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Yeah, so there are a lot of different tools and
assessments that you can use,you know, to be able to identify
where someone kind of likewhere they are, but also asking
them.
Sometimes people do want tovolunteer but and they will have
a heart to volunteer but alsoasking them what they like and
what they don't like them whatthey like and what they don't
(15:21):
like, you know, is thissomething that they like to do?
And people would usually behonest with you.
But also, people are typically,especially in the nonprofit
space, they'll just be happy tohelp.
So it doesn't matter, they'lljust fill in the gap.
But if you ask someone, is thissomething that you like to do?
They may just tell you no oryes.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
But sometimes, sometimes our gifts are not
necessarily what we like to do,but we're super, super gifted at
it and we can do it with oureyes closed yeah so you know
there's a balance there.
You know how do you go aboutthat balance um, I don't think
there's a balance.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
No, no, I don't think there's a balance.
I think people who think,people who are naturally gifted
in a particular space, and if itcomes easy for them, they
usually might lean more intothat than to what does not come
easy it becomes frustrating whenyou're you begin unhappy,
(16:27):
you're not fulfilled in in inthat light, um and yeah.
So I don't think there is abalance between like being in
your gift and just kind of like,um you know, working in a
particular space.
I believe when you're in yourgift it brings ease, even if the
(16:49):
world around you is chaotic.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
So I say that because I think about myself, right and
for me, right, I can jump intoeducator mode in 2.5 seconds and
jump in a classroom, startteaching a lesson and put in the
activities together, withouteven having to have the proper
(17:12):
preparation for it.
Just somebody who's like, oh,she wasn't here today.
I need you to do this, blah,blah, blah.
Okay, no problem, Jump in anddo it.
But I'm going to be like, no, Idon't want to, because this is
why I got out of it, becausethen there's all these other
things that go along with that.
Then I'm just like, oh, I don'twant to do this.
(17:33):
So that's why I say how do youfind that balance?
Because what I think aboutagain is things in education
come so easy to me and peoplelook at me like girl, how do you
even like, how did you do that?
I could never.
And I'm like it's easy to me.
But then there's the side of itwhere I'm just like this is why
(17:53):
I left.
I don't.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Well, even if it becomes easy and it's in your
gift, you may have it, may thatassignment may be over.
So I think it's identifying ifthe assignment is still there
and attached to you.
You know what I'm saying,because that's where the drain
can come in.
As well, you could have evolved, so I think it's just learning
how to, to say no to what hasnow become easy, what what has
(18:20):
now like you've evolved from, soit's no longer like it's really
having to divorce and say I'mno longer doing.
While it does come easy to me,I'm no longer doing that anymore
because I've evolved from thatplace.
So I think it's more so aninternal thing of where you're
going back and forth because itdoes become easy, but just
because it comes easy and ifyou've evolved from that place,
(18:42):
then it's time to let it goplace and it's time to let it go
well.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
This is a great point , too, when it comes to
organizations, because yousometimes evolve into something
different, right, and andbecause you started out one way
right.
Your goal is to grow and scale,and so how?
Speaker 2 (19:03):
do you?
Speaker 1 (19:03):
know when it's time to sort of shift directions and
move into the next phase, thenext level?
How do you know when that'sappropriate?
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Yeah, when it's time to move into is typically.
They're usually about two tothree signs.
One there's stagnation.
So when there's a level ofstagnation within the
organization, then you know it'stime to make some shifts.
Two, if there's some level ofretention that has happened.
So if people are either fallingoff maybe volunteers are
(19:39):
falling off, maybe clients orwhat have you if that's
happening, then it's time tomake some shifts.
Also, if there's some level ofchaos that's happening
internally within theorganization, where all of a
sudden, like everything seemedto go smoothly and maybe certain
things are starting to break,that's because you probably
(20:02):
outgrown how you were doingthings and now it's time to like
, reinvent and bring somethingnew in, and so those are
typically key indicators of whenit's time to make some shifts
that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
That makes a lot of sense because you know when
things are running smoothly,we're like you know what, if it
ain't broke, don't fix it, we'rejust gonna keep doing this.
It's working.
But then, when the chaos comes,when things start to be like
all right, this was working.
Now I don't know what'shappening, but we got to figure
something else out that makessense so yes, it's time to go
(20:37):
back to the table right and getthis strategic plan in place.
Um and I want to talk about thistoo, because here's another
thing that I think people don'trealize is that when you do
strategic planning, there's theshort term and then there's the
long term.
And so how do you set yourselfup for those small goals that
(21:00):
lead up to those big goals?
Because I find organizationshave a hard time with this too.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
Yes, this is a part of planning, and so a project
planner could help identifycertain areas with this.
So it's breaking down orsetting up sprints.
One could be setting up sprints, so sprints will allow you to
be able to get a certain amountof projects or tasks done in a
(21:27):
certain time frame, and then youhave to break each sprint down,
each part of the sprint down,into simple tasks that would
allow the overarching goal to beaccomplished.
Then the beautiful part aboutthis is that you can assign
certain people to certain tasks.
That way you're not necessarilydoing all the things, but
(21:49):
putting start dates and finishdates on these particular tasks,
so that way you can get themdone and that way they're just
not a dream.
Then also, an additional way tobe able to do this is actually
documenting, which happens inthe sprint process.
But you don't have tonecessarily do a sprint.
You can just do a simple like,use a project management tool
(22:14):
and just put all the goals thatyou have in place and just
literally just document what hasto happen and reverse engineer
what the main goal is and thenwhat all the steps that have to
happen in order to get thataccomplished, and then you know
making sure somebody'soverlooking and managing it, to
make sure that things aregetting done and then put a
(22:36):
timeframe on it, don't you know?
Say you know, at least by theend of the year.
I would definitely condense itdown because you can actually
get way more done than I thinkmost of us sometimes realize if
we don't spread it out so long,like if you give yourself 30 to
60 days to get something done,and you'll be surprised how much
(23:00):
you can actually get done inthat 60 days versus in trying to
push it out to six monthsversus in trying to push it out
to six months, oh y'all.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
So I hope you caught that.
She definitely just broke downwhat a SMART goal is right, and
so I love that you named this,though, because it makes sense,
right.
I find when I say, okay, Spring, you got two weeks to do this,
right?
Instead of me procrastinatingprocrastinating like, oh, I got
next month, I got next month, Igot next month I'm like, oh, I
(23:30):
only got two weeks, and in thosetwo weeks I got all these other
things that need to get done.
So I'll take a day and reallyfocus and get it done.
And so it does make sense whenyou put a timeline on it and you
put a very real timeline, veryrealistic, you know, not
stretching it out too long justsay, oh well, let me give myself
(23:51):
three months when you know youmay only need three weeks.
Right, I think that worksbetter, like you said, because
it forces you to focus, itforces you to cut the noise out
and do the thing and then bedone with it.
But you know, one of the thingsthat I love that you named is
(24:12):
that it's measurable as well,because a lot of times, I think
people they have a goal in mindand they're like, okay, this is
what we want to do.
And then they kind of namesomething here or there that
they can do to get there.
But you don't have what successlooks like in achieving that
(24:32):
goal.
Right, what when?
When I get to this milestone,what is that actually going to
look like?
And that's one of my favoritethings about strategic planning
is is naming what success lookslike.
How are you going to measurethat?
Speaker 2 (24:49):
You know.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
so I think organizations sort of miss that
part of it too.
But another thing I want totalk about here is this
strategic plan in times offinancial strain, because right
now we know that a lot ofnonprofits are really kind of
(25:10):
feeling the pressure on theirfinances because of funding
shifts that have happened on thefederal level.
It's just had this trickle downeffect, and so I want to talk
about that.
How does the strategic planreally help you stay focused
when you have that financialcrunch?
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Yeah, the strategic plan can well one.
The strategic plan is a living,breathable plan plan, so it can
change at any time.
(25:53):
That's the beauty.
And so I believe in makingshifts based upon what is
realistic and then what isneeded, and so it can create, I
feel, like, a level of focus,but also identifying, but
simplifying what's going to makethe business shift and who
(26:14):
exactly do you need to makethose pieces shift.
Right, I would.
And then even how much moneyyou need, how many people you
need to impact, who do you needto meet?
Who are the key players in theindicate?
You know the key players thatwould allow the goals to be met
(26:35):
of whatever the organization istrying to meet, and then allow
space to God to do his thing inthe midst as well.
So I would say, simplifyingstrategic plan would just help
simplify and then just allow youto just stay focused, you know,
overall, I love that it doessimplify things.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
You have to let it simplify things, and that's what
a good leader does, too.
Right Is to be able to take thisdocument and say, okay, you
know what, this is our roadmap,but we hit a little roadblock,
so we got to take a little bitof a different route and this is
how we're going to do that,right?
So the goal is still the same,the overarching goal is still
(27:19):
the same, but the road that youtake to get there may be a
little different, may look alittle different, simply because
there were some unexpectedthings that came up along the
way.
And so I think that's whatreally makes a good leader is
being flexible to recognize inthose things and then being
(27:40):
flexible to make those necessarychanges in the moment when it
needs to happen.
So I hope you guys arelistening and taking these gems
away.
I really appreciate you, karya,for coming on today and really
lifting this up, because, again,I don't think organizations
really realize how important thestrategic planning piece is to
(28:04):
the overall success of theorganization and the mission
itself.
So I'm super excited to havehad you on today to talk about
this, if anyone wants to get intouch with you to learn more
about what you do on thefor-profit side, or if they want
to add in some way shape orform to what you're doing on the
(28:25):
nonprofit side.
How do they get in touch withyou?
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Yeah, so, um, they will get in contact with me.
They can either email me, findme on all social platforms, um,
um, it's K A R R I A.
Um consult is consult withKorea.
Um, and then um on Instagram,on Facebook as well as on
LinkedIn.
And then on Instagram, onFacebook as well as on LinkedIn,
priya Lawrence.
(28:48):
And then the name of thecompany's archetype is
A-R-K-I-T-Y-P-E-A-N-D dot C-Oand the nonprofit organization
is Pretty Girls with a Y, soit's G-Y-R-L-Z PrayIncorg.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
I love it, and I'll be sure to link all of this in
the notes, guys, so you can seeit for yourself.
You can check it out and, again, if you want to contribute to
Kariya's mission, you can checkout what she's doing and get in
touch with her to see how youcan help.
And so I appreciate you so much, kariya, for coming on today
(29:25):
and lifting yes, and lifting allof this up for us, and I would
love to stay in touch with youto just see how things are going
with the organization, becausewe have similar paths but in a
different way, and so it'd beawesome to just kind of see each
other's journey.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
So please, please, please.
Yes, we definitely have to stayconnected.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
All right, guys.
Well, thank you so much fortuning in today and, as always,
until next time on the SpringForward podcast.
Bye, guys.
Hey, nonprofit friends, welcome to the Spring
Forward podcast, where we talkabout all things nonprofit, from
board discord to grant writingand strategic planning tips.
If you're an executive director, nonprofit board member or just
someone heavily involved in thenonprofit sector, then this is
the podcast for you.
Let's spring forward intoexcellence.
(00:24):
Welcome, welcome, guys, toanother episode of the Spring
Forward podcast.
I'm your host, springRichardson Perry, and I'm super
excited today to bring you MsKia Lawrence.
She is the founder of PrettyGirls Pray, which is a nonprofit
(00:47):
that's dedicated to empoweringgirls who have experienced
trauma.
She focuses on trauma recovery,self-esteem building and life
skills development, and what'sreally awesome is that she also
has a for-profit company calledArchetype Co.
Which is a strategic planningand operational consulting firm,
(01:08):
and so she is really good atthe business of business, and so
that is what we're going to betalking about today the business
of nonprofits, and so I amsuper excited to have miss
Kariya on to talk to us aboutthis, so welcome thank you so
much for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Absolutely.
I'm super excited to talk aboutthis because this is one of
those things that's always kindof overlooked in the nonprofit
sector.
Right is the business side,Because, yes, we're in it to
serve, we're in it to help, butit's still a business and we
have to be mindful of that.
So I'm really excited to liftthis up today to really talk
(01:50):
about this, to share someinsights that you have.
But I want to start with firsttelling us what you do in your
for-profit business and how itrelates to the nonprofit side of
things.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Yes, so in my for-profit company, Archetype Co
, we actually come into smallorganizations and help them
structure their company, buildout processes and actually
design their systems to put inplace for them to either have
(02:24):
more impact, createsustainability and also create
some transparency amongst theirteam and allow, like the owner
or the founder to not be theoperator so much within the
company, to begin to startdelegating and delegate properly
and even the people that theymay have on the team for them to
(02:44):
take ownership within theiractual roles, so that way they
can design KPIs, put you knowreal, true sales metrics in
place and start focusing more onstrategy than the doing of the
thing.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Yes, that is super important, and I think people
don't realize how much thismakes sense and how much this
actually moves the businessforward, as opposed to you as
either the owner of thefor-profit or the founder of the
nonprofit.
When you're in the daily grind,it's hard for you to push the
(03:22):
needle forward for the overallbusiness machine itself, and so
when you start to put thesesystems and these processes and
these sound structures in place,it makes it so much easier for
things to move forward and foryou to really start to scale and
(03:43):
to really start to see thebusiness itself be a business.
So I love to hear that, becauseI think people in the nonprofit
world really forget about this.
So I want to take a step backfor a moment, though, and now
talk about your nonprofit.
Let's shift over to that partof things, because I want to
(04:05):
talk about what your nonprofitis, what you do in it, but then
also how you help nonprofits toreally scale and structure and
build sustainable organizations.
So talk to us about Pretty Girl.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Yeah.
So Pretty Girls Pray is anonprofit that was given to me,
of course, like most founders,out of typically either pain or
an experience that some of usmay have had in life.
So, personally, I'm a survivorof physical and sexual abuse
(04:42):
from childhood and so I decidedto.
Physical and sexual abuse fromchildhood, and so I decided to.
Not, I decided.
Actually, god gave me thevision to start this nonprofit,
probably a little bit over,probably when I was in my teens,
to be honest with you, and Ialways wanted to be a director
of a school board, but I neversaw myself necessarily becoming
(05:05):
an entrepreneur, so to speak.
I just thought that thenonprofit would be something
kind of small, maybe an afterschool program, something like
that, but nothing to the scaleof what the vision that he is
currently showing me.
And so, you know, we startedthe nonprofit basically just
working with.
First we start working with,like girls that I was just
(05:28):
connected with through you know,friends of you know in my
direct community, whether it bechurch or what have you.
Then I got assigned to troubledyouth through my church 10
years ago, so they were alreadycoming out of detention centers
but they were like in a grouphome.
So I was assigned to them andworking with them and then from
(05:51):
there I just kind of grew andstarted doing navigating things
on my own.
I had did my first likefundraiser, um, probably like
eight years ago.
It was a fashion show, and so Ihad never, I didn't have a
platform, I didn't have, Ididn't know anybody.
(06:12):
It was in Atlanta, um, ended upbeing in Buckhead and ended up
being a sold out show and I hadover 50 volunteers.
I did not hardly know anybody,but God had literally had
designed people to crossingpaths with people that, just you
know, showed up and um andblessed and blessed me and so,
um, so yeah, it was definitely agreat experience.
(06:34):
The next one I did was at CityHall in Atlanta, um, and that
was a true learning experience,because at that time I had over
107 volunteers and people didn'teven know I was the one that
was putting on the show.
So from there I just be able tojust do different things, from
summer camps to just differentprograms and just outreaches for
(07:00):
the girls.
Right now I'm in Cleveland,ohio, partnering with schools
and nonprofits as a resource.
Well, that's what I do rightnow.
So we went to like smallprograms to actually now
partnering with schools andother nonprofits as a resource
for trauma-informed services.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
That's awesome.
I love to hear those types ofstories.
And you know, it's unfortunatethat you have this experience.
That causes you to reflect andbe like what can I do to help
others?
So it's have doesn't what wehave, doesn't the other right,
because you experienced thistrauma, which in and of itself
(07:39):
is an unfortunate situation, butthe blessing in it is that God
gives you this vision to ensurethat there's support for anyone
else who's experienced a similarsituation.
And so I love, love, love whatyou're doing.
We have a nonprofit, my husbandand I, that is youth focused as
(08:02):
well, and its focus is on youngmen, young boys, because we
don't have a lot of focus on ouryoung boys.
And so it's a life skillsprogram as well, and I love to
hear when you're focused onhelping young people to develop
into good human beings who aregoing to function well in
(08:26):
society, despite whatever thecircumstance is.
And so, as I'm listening to youand you're talking about the
fundraisers that you puttogether me in the nonprofit
world, fundraising especiallywhen you're doing an event, the
planning behind this is nuts,and so you know this is, but,
(08:47):
but this is what you do, right,the, the organizing, the
strategic planning, those sortsof things.
And so I want to, I want tojump into that and just kind of
talk about strategic planning inand of itself and how important
this is for nonprofits, andmoving forward Talk to me about
that.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
I feel like strategic planning is probably one of the
core pieces that needs tohappen in any organization, but
especially nonprofits, becauseyou do have so many moving
pieces and variables that couldpredict whether you know how
many people that you are lookingto connect with outreach impact
(09:27):
, as well as how many donors orsponsorships that you may need
for the year to sustain and whatgrants and opportunities and
fellowships that are out therefor you to connect with to be
able to grow and to be able togrow.
And so strategic planning, Ifeel like, should be the
foundation of what allnonprofits do, At least do, one
(09:51):
at the top of the year and onemaybe towards the end of the
year.
It has to happen.
It allows the team to flow withclarity, for you to be able to
assign and also look back onwhat worked well and what didn't
work well, and put somelanguage to you know and
(10:12):
reminders as to why you're doingwhat you're doing, Because
sometimes it can be very easy toget in the mundane of things in
the day-to-day or have lifehappening if you're just doing
your non-profit part-time andnot really focusing on what
(10:33):
needs to happen to move theneedle.
Strategic planning helps youidentify what needs to move the
needle in the business.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
I love that, because I think this is a part that a
lot of organizations miss,because strategic planning gets
everyone on the same page.
It gets everyone on one accordto understanding this is what
our vision is.
This is why we're here to servewhat our purpose is, because
(11:07):
sometimes there's this missiondrift right, where we've set out
with one mission and let's saywith yours it's helping young
girls with trauma, right, butthen in doing so, sometimes you
start to drift over to oh well,we're helping them with trauma
and then, instead of focusing onthe life skills aspect of it,
(11:30):
you start going more into mentalhealth, and while that's a part
of it, right, the overallmission, from what I'm
understanding, is is the, theskills, the life skills, the
tools, the resources to be ableto really, to really be able to
move forward and live a fruitfullife.
And so, you know, sometimes wejust have those.
(11:52):
We have those moments where wegot to all sit down at the table
again.
We got to talk about okay, thisis why we're here, this is what
we're doing and this is how wesee ourselves moving forward.
And I find that, um, I find thatnonprofits don't put enough
emphasis on this, um, and andthey don't put enough resources
(12:15):
aside um to do this, and notthat it takes a lot of resources
but, if you don't understandwhat strategic planning is and
you don't really know how to doit and how to make it work for
your organization, then you haveto have resources to bring a
professional in to help you.
(12:35):
And so you know what I mean.
And so I just think that Idon't think that many nonprofits
really understand how importantstrategic planning is and
they're kind of just winging it.
And it shows sometimes, youknow.
And so I want to say I want tosay this, because this is
(12:57):
something else that youmentioned right, it's stepping
out of the day-to-day operationsso that you can have a 360 view
of what's happening in theorganization.
But how does the leader do that?
How do you help them do that?
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Well, it does take time, but it's just easily done,
honestly, through one, gettingeverything out of your head that
you do do and actuallydocumenting the processes.
Once the processes aredocumenting, then knowing how to
properly train and equip theright people and also finding
(13:35):
the right who's that you needand understanding where your
deficits are.
So there are quite a it'ssimple, but it's quite a few
just different steps that needto happen before putting someone
in a particular role.
The danger is, a lot of times,people, especially in nonprofits
, just whoever can volunteer,whoever can get in.
You know whoever can do this.
(13:56):
You know we allow them to do it, but without identifying you
know where their gifts are.
Identifying you know wheretheir gifts are, and so you
could be putting somebody inadmin that could be really
gifted in just sales andoutreach, that can be closing on
some deals, and so it's justyou know being able to properly
equip yourself, to know how toidentify the who's that are on
(14:19):
your team and identify exactlywhere your deficits are and how
you're going to, you know,employ those people.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Well, and that's super important too, and I want
to talk about this because youknow, like you said, you may
have someone in the wrong space,right, because they may be
gifted in one area, but you havethem doing something else
because you don't understand howto identify those gifts, right?
So how do we identify that?
(14:53):
How do we engage our employeesor volunteers or whomever that
is helping us?
How do we engage them so thatwe can properly identify those
gifts and put them in the rightplaces?
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Yeah, so there are a lot of different tools and
assessments that you can use,you know, to be able to identify
where someone kind of likewhere they are, but also asking
them.
Sometimes people do want tovolunteer but and they will have
a heart to volunteer but alsoasking them what they like and
what they don't like them whatthey like and what they don't
(15:21):
like, you know, is thissomething that they like to do?
And people would usually behonest with you.
But also, people are typically,especially in the nonprofit
space, they'll just be happy tohelp.
So it doesn't matter, they'lljust fill in the gap.
But if you ask someone, is thissomething that you like to do?
They may just tell you no oryes.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
But sometimes, sometimes our gifts are not
necessarily what we like to do,but we're super, super gifted at
it and we can do it with oureyes closed yeah so you know
there's a balance there.
You know how do you go aboutthat balance um, I don't think
there's a balance.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
No, no, I don't think there's a balance.
I think people who think,people who are naturally gifted
in a particular space, and if itcomes easy for them, they
usually might lean more intothat than to what does not come
easy it becomes frustrating whenyou're you begin unhappy,
(16:27):
you're not fulfilled in in inthat light, um and yeah.
So I don't think there is abalance between like being in
your gift and just kind of like,um you know, working in a
particular space.
I believe when you're in yourgift it brings ease, even if the
(16:49):
world around you is chaotic.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
So I say that because I think about myself, right and
for me, right, I can jump intoeducator mode in 2.5 seconds and
jump in a classroom, startteaching a lesson and put in the
activities together, withouteven having to have the proper
(17:12):
preparation for it.
Just somebody who's like, oh,she wasn't here today.
I need you to do this, blah,blah, blah.
Okay, no problem, Jump in anddo it.
But I'm going to be like, no, Idon't want to, because this is
why I got out of it, becausethen there's all these other
things that go along with that.
Then I'm just like, oh, I don'twant to do this.
(17:33):
So that's why I say how do youfind that balance?
Because what I think aboutagain is things in education
come so easy to me and peoplelook at me like girl, how do you
even like, how did you do that?
I could never.
And I'm like it's easy to me.
But then there's the side of itwhere I'm just like this is why
(17:53):
I left.
I don't.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Well, even if it becomes easy and it's in your
gift, you may have it, may thatassignment may be over.
So I think it's identifying ifthe assignment is still there
and attached to you.
You know what I'm saying,because that's where the drain
can come in.
As well, you could have evolved, so I think it's just learning
how to, to say no to what hasnow become easy, what what has
(18:20):
now like you've evolved from, soit's no longer like it's really
having to divorce and say I'mno longer doing.
While it does come easy to me,I'm no longer doing that anymore
because I've evolved from thatplace.
So I think it's more so aninternal thing of where you're
going back and forth because itdoes become easy, but just
because it comes easy and ifyou've evolved from that place,
(18:42):
then it's time to let it goplace and it's time to let it go
well.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
This is a great point , too, when it comes to
organizations, because yousometimes evolve into something
different, right, and andbecause you started out one way
right.
Your goal is to grow and scale,and so how?
Speaker 2 (19:03):
do you?
Speaker 1 (19:03):
know when it's time to sort of shift directions and
move into the next phase, thenext level?
How do you know when that'sappropriate?
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Yeah, when it's time to move into is typically.
They're usually about two tothree signs.
One there's stagnation.
So when there's a level ofstagnation within the
organization, then you know it'stime to make some shifts.
Two, if there's some level ofretention that has happened.
So if people are either fallingoff maybe volunteers are
(19:39):
falling off, maybe clients orwhat have you if that's
happening, then it's time tomake some shifts.
Also, if there's some level ofchaos that's happening
internally within theorganization, where all of a
sudden, like everything seemedto go smoothly and maybe certain
things are starting to break,that's because you probably
(20:02):
outgrown how you were doingthings and now it's time to like
, reinvent and bring somethingnew in, and so those are
typically key indicators of whenit's time to make some shifts
that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
That makes a lot of sense because you know when
things are running smoothly,we're like you know what, if it
ain't broke, don't fix it, we'rejust gonna keep doing this.
It's working.
But then, when the chaos comes,when things start to be like
all right, this was working.
Now I don't know what'shappening, but we got to figure
something else out that makessense so yes, it's time to go
(20:37):
back to the table right and getthis strategic plan in place.
Um and I want to talk about thistoo, because here's another
thing that I think people don'trealize is that when you do
strategic planning, there's theshort term and then there's the
long term.
And so how do you set yourselfup for those small goals that
(21:00):
lead up to those big goals?
Because I find organizationshave a hard time with this too.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
Yes, this is a part of planning, and so a project
planner could help identifycertain areas with this.
So it's breaking down orsetting up sprints.
One could be setting up sprints, so sprints will allow you to
be able to get a certain amountof projects or tasks done in a
(21:27):
certain time frame, and then youhave to break each sprint down,
each part of the sprint down,into simple tasks that would
allow the overarching goal to beaccomplished.
Then the beautiful part aboutthis is that you can assign
certain people to certain tasks.
That way you're not necessarilydoing all the things, but
(21:49):
putting start dates and finishdates on these particular tasks,
so that way you can get themdone and that way they're just
not a dream.
Then also, an additional way tobe able to do this is actually
documenting, which happens inthe sprint process.
But you don't have tonecessarily do a sprint.
You can just do a simple like,use a project management tool
(22:14):
and just put all the goals thatyou have in place and just
literally just document what hasto happen and reverse engineer
what the main goal is and thenwhat all the steps that have to
happen in order to get thataccomplished, and then you know
making sure somebody'soverlooking and managing it, to
make sure that things aregetting done and then put a
(22:36):
timeframe on it, don't you know?
Say you know, at least by theend of the year.
I would definitely condense itdown because you can actually
get way more done than I thinkmost of us sometimes realize if
we don't spread it out so long,like if you give yourself 30 to
60 days to get something done,and you'll be surprised how much
(23:00):
you can actually get done inthat 60 days versus in trying to
push it out to six monthsversus in trying to push it out
to six months, oh y'all.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
So I hope you caught that.
She definitely just broke downwhat a SMART goal is right, and
so I love that you named this,though, because it makes sense,
right.
I find when I say, okay, Spring, you got two weeks to do this,
right?
Instead of me procrastinatingprocrastinating like, oh, I got
next month, I got next month, Igot next month I'm like, oh, I
(23:30):
only got two weeks, and in thosetwo weeks I got all these other
things that need to get done.
So I'll take a day and reallyfocus and get it done.
And so it does make sense whenyou put a timeline on it and you
put a very real timeline, veryrealistic, you know, not
stretching it out too long justsay, oh well, let me give myself
(23:51):
three months when you know youmay only need three weeks.
Right, I think that worksbetter, like you said, because
it forces you to focus, itforces you to cut the noise out
and do the thing and then bedone with it.
But you know, one of the thingsthat I love that you named is
(24:12):
that it's measurable as well,because a lot of times, I think
people they have a goal in mindand they're like, okay, this is
what we want to do.
And then they kind of namesomething here or there that
they can do to get there.
But you don't have what successlooks like in achieving that
(24:32):
goal.
Right, what when?
When I get to this milestone,what is that actually going to
look like?
And that's one of my favoritethings about strategic planning
is is naming what success lookslike.
How are you going to measurethat?
Speaker 2 (24:49):
You know.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
so I think organizations sort of miss that
part of it too.
But another thing I want totalk about here is this
strategic plan in times offinancial strain, because right
now we know that a lot ofnonprofits are really kind of
(25:10):
feeling the pressure on theirfinances because of funding
shifts that have happened on thefederal level.
It's just had this trickle downeffect, and so I want to talk
about that.
How does the strategic planreally help you stay focused
when you have that financialcrunch?
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Yeah, the strategic plan can well one.
The strategic plan is a living,breathable plan plan, so it can
change at any time.
(25:53):
That's the beauty.
And so I believe in makingshifts based upon what is
realistic and then what isneeded, and so it can create, I
feel, like, a level of focus,but also identifying, but
simplifying what's going to makethe business shift and who
(26:14):
exactly do you need to makethose pieces shift.
Right, I would.
And then even how much moneyyou need, how many people you
need to impact, who do you needto meet?
Who are the key players in theindicate?
You know the key players thatwould allow the goals to be met
(26:35):
of whatever the organization istrying to meet, and then allow
space to God to do his thing inthe midst as well.
So I would say, simplifyingstrategic plan would just help
simplify and then just allow youto just stay focused, you know,
overall, I love that it doessimplify things.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
You have to let it simplify things, and that's what
a good leader does, too.
Right Is to be able to take thisdocument and say, okay, you
know what, this is our roadmap,but we hit a little roadblock,
so we got to take a little bitof a different route and this is
how we're going to do that,right?
So the goal is still the same,the overarching goal is still
(27:19):
the same, but the road that youtake to get there may be a
little different, may look alittle different, simply because
there were some unexpectedthings that came up along the
way.
And so I think that's whatreally makes a good leader is
being flexible to recognize inthose things and then being
(27:40):
flexible to make those necessarychanges in the moment when it
needs to happen.
So I hope you guys arelistening and taking these gems
away.
I really appreciate you, karya,for coming on today and really
lifting this up, because, again,I don't think organizations
really realize how important thestrategic planning piece is to
(28:04):
the overall success of theorganization and the mission
itself.
So I'm super excited to havehad you on today to talk about
this, if anyone wants to get intouch with you to learn more
about what you do on thefor-profit side, or if they want
to add in some way shape orform to what you're doing on the
(28:25):
nonprofit side.
How do they get in touch withyou?
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Yeah, so, um, they will get in contact with me.
They can either email me, findme on all social platforms, um,
um, it's K A R R I A.
Um consult is consult withKorea.
Um, and then um on Instagram,on Facebook as well as on
LinkedIn.
And then on Instagram, onFacebook as well as on LinkedIn,
priya Lawrence.
(28:48):
And then the name of thecompany's archetype is
A-R-K-I-T-Y-P-E-A-N-D dot C-Oand the nonprofit organization
is Pretty Girls with a Y, soit's G-Y-R-L-Z PrayIncorg.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
I love it, and I'll be sure to link all of this in
the notes, guys, so you can seeit for yourself.
You can check it out and, again, if you want to contribute to
Kariya's mission, you can checkout what she's doing and get in
touch with her to see how youcan help.
And so I appreciate you so much, kariya, for coming on today
(29:25):
and lifting yes, and lifting allof this up for us, and I would
love to stay in touch with youto just see how things are going
with the organization, becausewe have similar paths but in a
different way, and so it'd beawesome to just kind of see each
other's journey.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
So please, please, please.
Yes, we definitely have to stayconnected.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
All right, guys.
Well, thank you so much fortuning in today and, as always,
until next time on the SpringForward podcast.
Bye, guys.
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