Meet Alexis Bennett

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Alexis Bennett. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alexis, we’ve been so fortunate to work with so many incredible folks and one common thread we have seen is that those who have built amazing lives for themselves are also often the folks who are most generous. Where do you think your generosity comes from?

My generosity comes in part from my mom, who is always quick to help anyone with anything at any moment, and growing up with friends who had families that were different than my own. I’ll expand on that.

My mom is a professor and always goes above and beyond for her students, getting on Zoom calls at midnight to answer their questions or spending extra time with her debate students until they get their speech down perfect. While she seems to have an extra big heart for her students, she’s equally generous to everyone, nearly to a fault.

Regarding growing up, I watched some of my friends struggle with less-than-ideal family situations, like parents who were alcoholics or abusive or homes where there wasn’t always enough food in the house. It gave me a certain level of empathy and perspective. It’s why I’ve learned to extend more grace to people and why I’ve cared that my work means more than a paycheck.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I bring big-brand marketing and communications support to small nonprofit organizations. Typically, I work with small-to-mid-size organizations, helping them outsource aspects of or their entire communications program. This can mean creating communication plans to support a fundraising or event campaign and then working with the internal team, be they an executive director, nonprofit board, or development director to create stories, emails, appeals, promotional materials, and more to ensure the campaign succeeds. For my longer-term, retainer clients, I help them create a content and communication strategy that aligns with their growth goals and support them to execute the plan with copywriting, content creation, and public relations support. While I specialize in translating difficult concepts and jargon into digestible content, typically through storytelling, my passion and dogged diligence to moving plans forward is my true superpower. That’s why my favorite projects are those where I partner with nonprofits to build fundraising campaigns that set new benchmarks and make leaders feel proud and capable.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

The three most important qualities I’ve developed since starting my career are the ability to learn from mistakes, to continuously pursue improvement, and to be disciplined.

In college, even though I was an English major, professors seemed to care more about how I thought than how I wrote. Meaning, correctness wasn’t necessarily the focus. For this reason, my first job was shocking. I had a lot of feedback, a lot to fix. Frankly, my writing was embarrassing. It used to bother me. I felt like I wasn’t good enough or smart enough to write for a living. That doubt still creeps in sometimes, even after 10+ years. I continue trying to improve and know I can only do that by taking feedback from reliable sources, whether they be writers, marketers, sales, or other discipline experts. There’s always something to learn.

That leads me to continuous improvement. Writing has a tendency to be prescriptive so I find myself learning “new formulas” regularly to keep my writing relevant and outcome-oriented. Reading, researching, writing, and editing (or reviewing others’ writing and edits) can make you, and has made me, a better writer.

Finally, discipline. Sometimes I’m not motivated, especially when the topic isn’t interesting. However, when there’s a deadline or client relying on me, I need to be able to knuckle down and focus to get the work done. When others ask how I do it, I share my favorite trick. Set a timer and write for 10 minutes. At the end of the time, you’ll either have inertia or the start of a first draft. Learning to write, or do anything in life, when you’re not feeling it, makes a difference.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

I love to collaborate with innovative community-leaders, and specifically moms who seem to get so much done in the margins of the day. These are also my favorite clients. Right now, because of family responsibilities, I’m in a season of work smarter, not harder, which means that I’m looking for collaborators with complementary skill sets or those who know how to do the work I do so I can expand my client load and impact through them.

If you’re a graphic designer, front-end website developer, development/fundraising expert, or social media guru who is interested in working with nonprofits or who works with nonprofits and want to partner with a writer/content/communication nerd, I want to meet you.

If you’re a writer/content/communication nerd who wants to work with nonprofits or mission-driven organizations as a freelancer, reach out.

Either way, I’d love to grow my network of resources so we can help more people! Reach out through my website sprigco.com or find me on Instagram @sprigcommunications.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Sprigco.com
• Instagram: Sprigcommunications
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sprig-a-communications-company/