You're tuned into the Grant
Business Show with Rodney Walker.
Well, hello, and welcome to The Grant Business Show.
I'm your host, Rodney Walker.
And I am so excited that you have decided
to listen in to episode number number one.
We're going to have a good time.
I'm going to be sharing some information with you
on the day about why The Grant Business Show.
I know that's what you're wondering.
Why should we even have a Grant Business show and
why should I listen and what's in it for you?
Well, let me just start off by saying
there's a lot that's in it for you.
And I've got a lot of information that
I'm going to be bringing your way that
I believe is going to really help you.
But before we do that, I want to go back and
really take a look at that question that I just raised.
Why the Grant Business show?
There are a lot of different shows that are out
there related to business, and there are a lot of
different shows out there that are related to grants.
So "Why the need for another one, Rodney?"
That's what I'm going to answer.
And on today, I'm also going to
be answering the question for you.
What's in it for you and why you should listen.
I really think you should listen.
I'm going to be sharing with
you some of those reasons why.
And I want to just say that I'm so thrilled that
you are taking the time to go down this road.
Hopefully, it will provide great clarity for you,
and hopefully it will be a great source
of inspiration as well as information that you
can practically use right now.
I want to see you win, and that's
a lot of why this show exists.
But let me back up for a second.
Yes, let me back up right now.
And let me just share with you a little bit
about my journey so that you can understand that the
guy that's talking has been there and done a lot
of what maybe you're trying to do right now.
You see, I started a grant business back
in 2006 at the encouragement of my graduate
school professor who saw something in me.
He said, hey, you really have a
knack for this whole grant writing thing.
Have you thought about being a consultant?
And at the time, I wasn't
thinking about being a consultant.
I was just trying to raise some money for
the nonprofit organization that I had found it and
was trying to secure some initial startup money for.
But eventually that seed that he planted germinated.
And eventually it grew.
And here I am years later, and I'm having the
time of my life helping people to secure funds.
And I'm thrilled that now you are here and
that we get an opportunity to talk about doing
a grant business, because I've been at every juncture
of this, and it's really a fascinating business.
The whole grant space, working with nonprofits, working with
governmental agencies, working with even for profit businesses, and
helping these organizations to know what they need to
do to navigate to get funded.
It's a cool thing.
And I've seen a lot of things happen
on the positive side as well as on
the less than positive side of this business.
And I've seen grant professionals that have helped
organizations to raise millions, sometimes hundreds of thousands
of dollars, in other cases, millions of dollars.
And then at the end of the day, they walk
around with a little bag, with some pennies falling out
and a little loose change where the organization that they
were working and writing grants for were the only winners.
They were the only ones that really took on the bank.
And I believe that if you are a business
owner and if you are a grant professional, a
freelance grant writer, or even maybe you haven't even
started your business and you want to simply start
one, I want you to start from day one
realizing that there should always be win win situations.
It shouldn't be that the organization that you are
writing the grants for is the only winner.
They should not be the only winner.
It should be mutual.
Because if you help to raise funds for
them, rightfully so, you should be handsomely compensated.
And that's what I'm going to be encouraging you to
think about even as we go throughout the show.
Now I'm getting ahead of myself.
So let me just back up and answer that question.
Why this show?
Why the Grant Business Show?
Well, after looking across the landscape of various shows,
there are great business shows that are out there.
And yes, there are even great
grant shows that are out there.
What I've tended to find, though, is that there
is a concentration of shows that focuses on the
grants and talks about the whole aspects of grant
writing and maybe every now and then talk some
about the business aspect of it as well.
But there's no show that was dedicated 100%
of his time to talking about grant business.
And that's why I decided, hey, it's time for
us to have a show in this space.
And maybe as time continues, there will be many more.
But for now, there was a need that
I saw and I said, you know what?
Somebody has to stand in this gap.
And I decided that I would be
one of those that would do so.
And it's out of that need that now I'm doing
this show, and I'm looking forward to helping you literally
take your business and elevate it to the next level.
Now, another reason why this show. When I was first starting
out, I wish, listen to me, I wish that there could
have been a show like this that could have helped me
to know what landmines that I should be avoiding.
And I wish that there was some type of
show that could have spoken specifically to me as
a grant or would be grant business owner.
At the time, there were none.
And I'm now coming to the table saying, hey, let
me be what I wish was there for me.
So literally, I'm coming to the table
now and I am planning it forward.
I'm hoping that as I help you with the
information, I'm going to be sharing that one day
you too, my friend, will pay it forward with
someone else that needs to know the information that
you are about to learn in our time.
So I'm hoping that it will help
you in a very practical way.
And I'm hoping that this show will be something
that you can rely on to help to inspire
you, to give you the insight that you need.
Because when you're doing a business, if you don't do
it the right way and let me share with you
in some very concrete terms what I mean by the
right way, if you don't go at it smart, you're
going to find yourself very frustrated.
Because if you do business in a less than professional
way, meaning that you need to have a game plan.
And if you don't have a game plan, you
can find yourself going around in circles and you
can find yourself starting a grant business and being
a good or even a great grant writer.
But not knowing how to get business and
find yourself knowing not how to close deals.
When somebody comes your way asking you about the possibilities
of becoming their grant writer, you can drop some balls
by not knowing how to close the deal.
Another big landmine that I see is
not even knowing how to price yourself.
So what happens is you put yourself in a losing
position because now you think that you're doing something because
you're maybe charging $100 an hour, but it only takes
you 10 hours to write their grants.
And now you've written a wonderful grant proposal
for an organization, and that organization now takes
that proposal that you've written for them, and
then they go and they secure a $300
or $400,000 grant and you're left with $1,000.
What's wrong with that picture?
I'll tell you, you should have gotten more out of
that deal because you helped them in a tremendous way.
You're both staff.
You're helping the staff to keep their jobs.
You're helping to bring in programming.
You're helping that community to be stronger.
What happens if you didn't write that grant?
So I'm in to see everyone
wins, the nonprofit organizations, the governmental
organizations that are doing their good.
And I'm really in for the grant business owner so
that you position yourself to win in this equation.
I hope that makes sense.
That's what this show is all about.
I'm going to be bringing you some information.
And the next time that I share, I'm going
to be sharing a little bit more information about
my hopes for you with this show.
Yes, I'm going to be sharing with you my
hopes for you with the show and so I
hope that you'll listen and I will also be
answering questions over the course of our times together.
So if you have questions, feel free to send
them to me over at [email protected].
I look forward to getting a chance to connect with
you and go on this journey with you to help
you and your business until we talk again, my friend.
Remember, I want you to be brave, be bold,
be brilliant and I'll talk to you soon. All the best.
