Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kerry Rock. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
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?
In my regular day job, I’m an IT guy. I’ve been in this world for 19 years now and everyday I still find new things to learn, and discover. I think that’s why I still love this job. I’m also very lucky to work with a lot of fun people, and travel a good amount for my job. In my non-profit world, I love helping. In my business world, I actually still do that, but in an IT way. I get to help solve large problems our clients have but with IT.
There’s also the third world I have and that’s my family. Colleen and I have two wild, wickedly smart, gorgeous young daughters. They are becoming more and more amazing everyday and have obviously become our highest priority. It is a challenge though to want to still invest ourselves in our community, but to also be good parents to our kiddos at this young age. There’s only so much time in the day, but we make it work by refining our efforts to only a few major projects a year.
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?
– Being aware of what’s happening right now, mindfulness is what I think it’s called. If you can just chill for a second and take stock of what is within your immediate sphere you’ll realize how much you can do, and also can’t do which is important to understand. – Understanding No is a great word. This one took a while to understand, but the book “Never Split the Difference” cleared it up a bit. I always thought I wanted to hear “Yes” from my donors, or prospective fundraisers. But a no means whatever you’ve asked, or proposed hit a wall. A no is just a boundary that you can now see. Once you see all the walls, you know what you can work with.
– Being able to put myself in others shoes – Being able to understand the pain points of those I’m helping gives me the ability to understand them personally. Being able to understand the cost analysis of what I’m asking a business to do before I ask for a donation helps secure a donation. Case in point, I’ve had to learn what it actually costs for a beer, a taco, and a pizza to be made to successfully secure donations from individual companies.
Okay, so before we go, is there anyone you’d like to shoutout for the role they’ve played in helping you develop the essential skills or overcome challenges along the way?
This one is easy, Colleen Rock, my wife. Without her support, guidance, love, DoGoodCville wouldn’t exist and I would’ve flamed out from doing too much.
As a follow on question: What’s the biggest challenge we’ve faced or are facing when trying to help people?
Being able to get donors/fundraisers to visualize or understand the problem we are trying to solve. I gave a talk a while back about this specific question. Unfortunately everyone has felt the effects of Cancer. Someone they know, someone they love, a friend of a friend, etc everyone knows Cancer. So when the American Cancer Society requests donations or needs help, it resonates with the populace. When I’m trying to raise awareness and funds to build wells in East /Africa, that’s not something people can visualize. You probably are 15-20 seconds away from a fresh or clean water source reading this, so how can you understand that millions of people need to walk an average of 3 miles round trip to get water, not clean water. This provides a challenge that requires more effort to get people to understand the issue, before even asking for assistance.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.dogoodcville.org
- Instagram: @kerryrock
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kerry-rock-ba0a054/
