I recently went one on one with Bill McKendry. Bill is the founder and chief creative officer at HAVEN | a creative hub, which he launched after heading Hanon McKendry, being vice chairman and chief creative officer of JDA Worldwide, serving at Tracy-Locke/BBDO | Denver, co-founding Compass College of Cinematic Arts, and winning over 1,000 national and international awards in advertising and marketing. Bill is also the founder and board president of the nonprofit DO MORE GOOD and the author of the new book Do More Good: Moving Nonprofits from Good to Growth.

Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your advice. First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about you. How did you get here? What experiences, failures, setbacks or challenges have been most instrumental to your growth? 

Bill: Being raised in a household where both parents were deaf from birth profoundly shaped me, I credit this upbringing with the reason I have a strong desire to be a voice and communicator for those who need help. 

As such, I see my career in marketing and communications not just as a career, but as a calling. Because so much about marketing and communications is about translating the vision and dreams for an organization to priority constituents, having been a translator for my parents in my youth gave me early training on how to communicate clearly and, at times, urgently. 

I used to see my childhood experiences as not ideal because none of my friends had that responsibility with and for their parents. However, today, I'm thankful because it has helped me a great deal in my profession as a communicator and in life. 

Beyond that, having worked for many of the world’s largest brands early in my career (I started at BBDO and on clients such as American Express, Taco Bell, Dodge and Kohler), I learned how the most successful marketers develop very clear, concise and compelling messaging based on well-researched insights. Once I had a taste of that, I never wanted to serve any client ever without doing what I knew was best for them. 

As I entered working with nonprofits by choice, starting an agency in 1994 that dedicated 50% of its efforts to working with nonprofits, I observed that they do not uniformly understand how to harness the power of marketing and communications to help create more awareness and support to advance their missions 

The combination of my upbringing with my professional training made working with nonprofits a purposeful passion and has given me an opportunity to make a difference, not just a living. 

Adam: What are your best tips on the topics of advertising, marketing and branding? 

Bill: A few simple tips that will improve results for nonprofits as they look to grow awareness and support using advertising, marketing and branding are: 

1. Touch (and Manage) Every Touchpoint | Make sure that your organization understands that every touchpoint within and from your organization is important. How your lobby looks, what your emails are like, what your voicemail message sounds like are key touchpoints. While I tend to be a big messaging guy, it never surprises me anymore how much impact the little details have on people and organizational success. 

2. Understand You Need Both an Air Attack and Ground Attack | Winning the battle for the heart, mind and resources requires more than just a staff fundraising person. Deploying frequent, awareness building efforts to your approach to increasing attention and support is key to growing and doing more good. Fundraising is your ground attack, efforts you do to grow awareness (social media, PR, marketing, etc.) are the air attack you need to create an environment for greater success. 

3. Stop Believing in "Once Upon A Time" Fairy Tales | So many organizations rely on too few tactics to grow their awareness and support. An annual outing, banquet, event or activity. Leaving their success and growth to infrequent contacts and year-end appeals is not only ineffective, it's high-risk. When/if people read my book, they'll understand how important it is to build relationships with those who support you and that you need to do so through frequent, high-value and high-quality contacts and connections. 

Adam: What are the best leadership lessons you have learned from leading a non-profit organization? 

Bill: As a nonprofit leader, especially one that spent a lot of time previously with consumer-focused companies, the first lesson I had to learn was how to be relational-focused versus transactional. In the traditional business world, the goal is to create win-win situations. In the nonprofit sector, you have the opportunity to create win-win-win situations. That is, the organization and the individual each get something, but together they create something as well. That requires that you know and connect, share and envision as a team on doing something that you can’t create alone. That requires building relationships and treating others as you would want to be treated. 

But my best advice on this front is something I’ve learned by going through the COVID-19 pandemic. That is, when you’re communicating about your cause, be focused more on being a painkiller over being a vitamin. 

By that I mean, it’s more important than ever for nonprofit leaders to be good stewards of dollars and resources used for growing awareness and support. In our current pandemic-shaped and media-saturated world, it’s essential. One of the keys to being a good steward is to spend less time and money on messaging that doesn’t resonate with your donor audiences. 

The news cycle has become seemingly endless doom and gloom. Fear and negativity dominate discussions of all kinds, and there seems to be no end in sight to our high-tension atmosphere and divisiveness. During these times, people want solutions, and they want to know there are difference-makers out there. 

The author of the international bestselling book Sell Like Crazy, Sabri Suby, who heads Australia’s fastest-growing digital marketing agency, wrote in a social media post how brands can be a ray of sunshine in the storm and can thrive during times like these. He said the secret is to understand that in tough moments, people don’t want candy or vitamins. Rather, they are looking for a painkiller. 

Candylike brands and candy messaging are representative of organizations that are very nice and that people enjoy, but they aren’t positioning themselves as a solution to a burning problem. So while they can get support during good times, they’re not seen as essential in more challenging seasons. 

Examples of nonprofit “candy” brands are fine arts organizations, theater groups, symphonies, galleries, performing arts venues, zoos, and planting trees. While many people feel strongly about the need for these enriching activities and events (count me in that crowd), they’re not universally seen as essential to support when times get tough. 

Vitamin-like organizations are known to have a very positive impact over time, but they’re also not seen as solving issues of urgent need. Therefore, like candy organizations, they are not positioned well to grow during economic contractions.

Examples of nonprofit “vitamin” brands are hiking trail associations, after-school activities, junior athletic programs, nature preserves, museums, and fitness programs. These would all fit into the vitamin cause category. They’re all seen as good for participating individuals, but they’re not perceived as critical. 

Painkiller brands and messaging, in contrast, are seen as coming from causes that offer immediate solutions to vitally important and pressing problems. These are problems that the majority of donors recognize and agree need to be alleviated promptly and urgently. 

Examples of nonprofit painkiller organizations are those dealing with hunger, emergency housing, healthcare, and community safety. These are all painkiller causes that thrive during tough times. Painkiller organizations are seen as solving urgent issues. They are perceived as critically important—now. 

Reality is, tough times require tougher stances. Suby also says when situations are dire, you don’t want to position your organization as anything but a painkiller. Think about it this way, he says: “If you’re feeling crippling pain, your focus goes quickly to finding immediate solutions.” 

In other words, you might be a vitamin type of cause, but you’d better find someone or something you serve that has an urgent need or you will miss “moments of opportunity” during challenging times to capture attention and support when people likely have more time and empathy than they do during stronger economic cycles. 

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Lisa Sherman from The Ad Council noted: “This is a moment of irreversible empathy. As the number of people who find themselves in tough situations soars . . . so does the number of people who understand at a visceral level what instability feels like.” 

Truth be told, painkillers are always needed. Charity Water is an organization often admired for its messaging and positioning. One of the reasons it’s been so successful is that its mission was founded on a painkiller platform—the recognition that many diseases being treated in Third World countries were caused by unsafe drinking water. And though it has bold goals of providing clean water for 100 million-plus people, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, it shifted the messaging in its ads to focus on delivering lifesaving hand sanitization resources and education for vulnerable communities. That education was about the importance of handwashing, using clean water, and killing germs, and it was a message that Americans could relate to. In short, this organization dealt with a new pain using a different painkiller message and shifted from just drinking water messaging to the need for clean water for handwashing to prevent COVID-19, as well as its ability to provide sanitation and hygiene training for people in great need. 

But it’s not the only organization that had timely and powerful painkiller communications resulting from a reaction to COVID-19. I’ve watched during the pandemic as performing arts venues encouraged people to buy gift cards to support them in a moment of great uncertainty and help support out-of-work performing artists. These venues connected the message about supporting the arts with why performing arts is an urgent need right now. 

I’ve seen a trail association change its messaging from supporting growth to supporting maintenance and providing safe trails for people seeking a healthy escape from being in lockdown in their homes. I worked with an organization that provides deaf people with Bible translations, and I encouraged them to shift their communications focus to helping deaf people who are hungry during these difficult times—since they have language barriers, their challenges were temporarily greater to get the basic needs such as food and water. That shift in communication focus has made these organizations’ campaigns successful! 

The bottom line is, when people are feeling pain, a vitamin won’t provide immediate relief. Candy is out of the question. Instead, they are looking for painkillers. And while that may have been more evident during a pandemic, the reality is, there’s always someone in pain and there likely is always the need to message accordingly. 

Adam: What are your best tips for fellow leaders of non-profit organizations? 

Bill: 

• Understand Your Competition | Nonprofits don't really compete with each other; rather, they compete with the consumer market for discretionary time and money. Once a nonprofit leader understands they are in competition with Apple, Nike and Coke, they will realize they need to rise to that challenge and be better at communicating their vision and purpose in the most compelling ways possible. I started down this road in helping nonprofits after being very successful in marketing consumer products and services (things like Target Stores, American Express and Taco Bell). After doing so for a while, I realized the voice of consumerism was extremely powerful and it was eroding the time and resources given to charity, faith and human kindness. In 1994 I set out to be a counterbalance to these competitive forces and to help organizations already doing good to do more good. 

• Frequency Wins | Any successful organization, business, celebrity, athlete, politician or cause understands when you do something well and you do it frequently, that this is a big part of their success equation. Engaging people and doing so with quantity, quality and variety will provide your organization with an unmatched and sustainable advantage. 

• Become A Brand, Not Just An Organization | Top-level success and impact are most always associated with an organization's ability to become a known brand. Do More Good provides practical methods and a roadmap on how an organization can manage and sustain a marketing and communications effort that grows your brand and, as a result, the good that you can do. 

Adam: In your experience, what are the defining qualities of an effective leader? How can leaders and aspiring leaders take their leadership skills to the next level? 

Bill: My preferred leadership qualities have been inspired and shaped by my faith. So I look to Jesus and what he modeled as a leader above all other examples.
Most Christians say that following Jesus’ example of leadership is about taking a position of servant leadership (putting others first). While that’s true, I understand his leadership to be multi-dimensional beyond just that attitude. Jesus showed that to be an effective leader you need to: 

a. Look to be a peace-keeper | looking for ways to resolve differences with respect and understanding b. Be approachable | you should be easy to access and give people the feeling you have time for them c. Have compassion | always try to understand the condition from which people are viewing an opportunity or problem 

d. Treat people equally | regardless of title or ability, make people feel as if you care for and respect everyone equally
e. Keep grace | give people the room to fail and don’t see the world as a win/lose proposition ... instead see it as a win/learn equation 

Adam: What are your three best tips applicable to entrepreneurs, executives and civic leaders? 

Bill: 

1. Don’t be risk averse (if you’re afraid to fail, you won’t take the risks needed to achieve great) 

2. Don’t make emotional decisions (always try to collect facts, do your homework and as much as y6ou can, base decisions on researched outcomes) 

3. Be mindful that the only two things that produce revenue/income are marketing and innovation (everything else is a cost, so marketing and innovation budgets should be the last things you cut ... not the first) 

Adam: What is your best advice on building, leading and managing teams? 

All of what I answered for your earlier leadership qualities question applies here. Adding to those are a few lessons I learned from managing a lot of teams, including my sons’ travel basketball teams. Those are: 

1. Chemistry counts | Team chemistry will win wars while superior talent will only win a few battles. There’s an African proverb that probably makes this point best: If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together. 

2. One drop of poison ruins the well | I’ve had to learn this one the hard way. I’ve kept poison-spreading staff on my team despite advice to the contrary because I appreciated their talent and expertise. In the end, those people always cost you far more than you will ever gain. My advice today, as nicely as you can, run ... don’t walk away from those who spread poison through gossip, talking negatively behind your back, sharing confidential information, disrespecting your authority, not buying into the vision, displaying ungratefulness, etc. 

3. Demand diversity | DEI is important, just as important is to diversify and mix personalities and perspectives. When you team too many similar individuals together, you typically drown in a “sea of sameness” when it comes to innovation and ideas. I often point out that even in the toughest work I’ve done in my career, the best ideas often come from those who do not share the same views. Example, I do a lot of work in both the Christian and conservative political spaces and, more often than not, when truly innovative ideas are generated, they’re created by non-Christians and politically liberal people. Having outside and objective thinking is a powerful and often underestimated force. 

Adam: What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received? 

Bill: Besides, trust Jesus, it’s this: Learn to put a ten-pound bag against a ten-pound problem. 

This advice came from a business client who was a significant philanthropist. When he supported a nonprofit organization, he always looked for organizational excellence and the ability to manage problems and opportunities efficiently. Some of his wisdom came, obviously, from his success in business. But I learned over time that his military service on the battlefields in Vietnam also gave him incredible insights. He learned in the trenches what it took to work and succeed under pressure. It took me a while to understand one of his oft-used expressions, but I soon realized that it’s great advice. 

This Vietnam vet turned successful businessman and amazing philanthropist would say about the need to manage situations well: “They just need to learn to put a ten-pound bag against a ten-pound problem.” 

When I heard him say this, I thought he was observing that there was too much or too little effort or action related to a specific opportunity or problem. Eventually I began to appreciate that it also meant to make sure you’re proactively prioritizing all your resources appropriately, assuring that you’re putting forth the right amount of organizational effort and weight to provide the greatest protection or return. 

I’ll admit, I was slow to also comprehend that he was literally talking about sandbags, which are filled and placed against an oncoming issue or problem that demands a sense of urgency, many times because it was unexpected. 

Of course, never having served in the military myself, I imagined at first that he was referring to the kind of small sandbags used to protect a property or area against flooding. But in the case of my vet-turned-philanthropic friend, he was talking about the kind of huge sandbags used to protect you and your troops from oncoming bullets. 

Efficiency, appropriate measures, and readiness take on new meaning when your life is on the line! Such things move from being just good efforts to being necessary for your survival! 

This concept applies to all organizations, but especially those that are scrappy, small, and struggling. Those organizations have limited resources, few staff members, little time, and often feel as if they’re dodging bullets constantly. 

Especially when you’re small and scrappy, it’s all the more reason not to waste resources or time by putting too much of your effort against problems and opportunities that can be managed by less time and fewer resources. 

Adam: What should everyone do to pay it forward? 

Always keep the perspective that whatever you have and you have achieved, you did not do it alone. So do not be selfish with your time, learnings, resources, wisdom and expertise. In the race to the end, you should cross the finish line empty of all you possess because, as they say, you can't take it with you. 

Adam: Is there anything else you would like to share?

Know this, that different is often better than better. 

Meaning, that differentiation is often underestimated. I find many organizations strive for excellence, believing that their quality is their differentiator. The reality is, quality and doing your best are already expected by your audiences. 

When I speak on this topic, I remind my audiences that marketing is not about putting information before the public and expecting that to lead to their support. Marketing is about differentiation and positioning. And given that, a better product or service doesn’t always produce a dominant category leader. 

I often demonstrate this in my talks by asking some simple questions that make this point painfully obvious, such as, “Is Walmart the best store you’ve ever shopped in? Is McDonald’s the best food you’ve ever had at a restaurant? If you’re a beer drinker, is Budweiser the best beer you’ve ever had?” 

Almost nobody says these brands are the best. But they are recognized as the biggest successes in their respective categories, and they’re seen as the best marketers. These brands stand out in the crowd because they emphasize their differences. And by differentiating and distancing themselves from their competitors, they have found great advantages in achieving growth and success.


Adam Mendler is the CEO of The Veloz Group, where he co-founded and oversees ventures across a wide variety of industries. Adam is also the creator and host of the business and leadership podcast Thirty Minute Mentors, where he goes one on one with America's most successful people - Fortune 500 CEOs, founders of household name companies, Hall of Fame and Olympic gold medal winning athletes, political and military leaders - for intimate half-hour conversations each week. Adam has written extensively on leadership, management, entrepreneurship, marketing and sales, having authored over 70 articles published in major media outlets including Forbes, Inc. and HuffPost, and has conducted more than 500 one on one interviews with America’s top leaders through his collective media projects. A top leadership speaker, Adam draws upon his insights building and leading businesses and interviewing hundreds of America's top leaders as a top keynote speaker to businesses, universities and non-profit organizations.

Follow Adam on Instagram and Twitter at @adammendler and listen and subscribe to Thirty Minute Mentors on your favorite podcasting app.