Good Comma Editing

Want to meet someone using crystal-clear insights to revolutionize fundraising? Meet Trevor Bragdon of 7-Figure Fundraising and this week’s GCE-featured “leader who states the most important things clearly.” Trevor teaches leaders of nonprofits that fundraising isn't a mysterious art—it's a learnable skill. Through his work, Trevor has distilled successful nonprofit fundraising into three straightforward levers: ? Grow existing donor contributions ? Keep current donors engaged ? Add new donors strategically One of Trevor's most compelling insights? The common belief that growing fundraising requires finding lots of new donors is incorrect. For most nonprofits, 20% of donors drive 80% of fundraising revenue, meaning focus should be on retaining and growing existing major donors first. Another insight: High-net-worth individuals make philanthropic decisions annually, not continually throughout the year. Although I lead for-profit businesses, I’ve personally gleaned many crossover insights in working with Trevor for almost 2 years. He's the paragon participant in Good Comma Editing's 1:1 Executive Virtual Writing Coaching—recognizing that investing in himself as a clear communicator is rocket fuel for his marketing dollars’ ROI. In his newly published book, "7-Figure Fundraising: A Guide to Help You Raise Millions to Change the World," coauthored with his brother Tarren Bragdon of Foundation for Government Accountability, Trevor cuts through the fog where many fundraisers get stuck. In his book, Trevor: ? allocates fundraising functions to three specialized roles (Closer, Conductor, Connector). ? describes five mindsets of successful fundraisers and explains the timing and psychology of the “ask.” ? details a four-part thank-you system. ? identifies different prospect types, success rates, and corresponding conversion strategies. ? outlines seven components of a persuasive pitch, including storytelling and the “4 P’s” of delivery. When he's not helping nonprofits raise millions, you'll find Trevor in Richmond, Virginia, running or practicing Brazilian jiu-jitsu - perhaps proof that the best leaders never stop learning new skills. Congrats, Trevor, and thanks for offering us so much of your practical wisdom, friendship, and support through your excellent work over the years! As a board member of Forge Leadership Network, I know you’ve helped Adam Josefczyk revolutionize that amazing organization’s fundraising and mindset as well. I'm sure Forge board members Jonathan Jakubowski, Heather Pfitzenmaier, PJ Wenzel, Peter Burns, Justin Powell, Joan Quintana, Ruth McNeil at Center for Christian Virtue, and Elliot Gaiser agree. 7-FIGURE FUNDRAISING WEBSITE: https://lnkd.in/eVrJQwbg 7-FIGURE FUNDRAISING BOOK ON AMAZON: https://lnkd.in/e2FRAFyh GOOD COMMA'S WRITING COACHING FOR PROFESSIONALS: #Nonprofit #Leadership #Fundraising #SocialImpact #NonprofitLeadership

Am I editing my 9- and 11-year-old girls too harshly? Because I marked up their short papers during business hours, I told them each markup represents a $75 value they will not be charged. ?? I had to leave the home office for a meeting, so, I wrote each girl a letter summarizing what they did well and what they need to work on. Pro tip for editing people more sensitive than yourself: Let your “commendations” (the 3 ? signs) precede your “recommendations” (the 4 ? signs). TRANSCRIPTION OF MY SUMMARY LETTERS: Good start, Betsy! ? Very creative! ? Bright, colorful language. ? Exciting story ? MLA formatting needs work ? Capitalization errors we have worked on many times before. You need to learn these. Don’t be lazy. Care. ? Your last 3 sentences don’t make sense. If you were telling me (or [cousin] Liberty) about your day, you would not speak “sentences” like these. Read them aloud. Do they make sense to you? If not, fix them so they do. ? Other errors—see my marks. Love, Dad Good start, Annie! ? Very creative . . . and intense! ? Suspenseful and engaging ? Evenly measured paragraphs ? MLA formatting close but not quite ? Multiple spelling and punctuation errors (including possessive apostrophe) ? Good language constructions here, but they’re still “under construction.” For example, see my note on “so . . . that.” READ ALOUD before you submit your paper to discover what doesn’t sound right. ? Use strong verbs. Avoid “was.” Be ACTIVE in your word choice, not lazy. I’ve given you examples. Choose mine or make better ones. Love, Dad ### I know what my daughters think about our weekly interactions of sending their papers through 3-4 drafts each. You don’t. Care to guess? I'm genuinely curious. #editing #writing #parenting

It didn’t take long to find what distinguishes the new book “Lead On Mission” when its author, Becca Spradlin—this week’s featured “leader who states the most important things clearly”—sent it for editing. As Spradlin says, “While there is an abundance of resources on biblical servant leadership and developing faith at work, few resources provide guidance on how to perpetuate that faith beyond a leader’s season of influence.” Wait: BEYOND a leader’s season of influence? She’s talking about leading SO WELL and in such a way that your leadership is self-perpetuating even AFTER you leave—and are no longer the leader of your organization. Such longevity is an attractive concept. (Just ask Richard Blackaby, who wrote the foreword.) Spradlin provides frameworks specifically for maintaining spiritual impact and faith-driven culture through leadership and ownership transitions over multiple generations. In her own words: the book uniquely focuses on providing “specific, practical guidance for how companies can advance their higher purpose and ongoing eternal impact beyond any single leader, owner, or board member.” I must admit, though, we at Good Comma Editing aren’t just in the game because we love our clients’ ideas. It’s the leaders we work with who get us charged up. And working with Becca Spradlin was a joy throughout the process. Her professionalism and standards as a high achiever encouraged and emboldened our editing team. I recommend working with Becca Spradlin through her consultancy, On Mission Advisors, if you get the opportunity. She also has a fun Mission Drift Self-Assessment to take over at her book’s website. Take the quiz, then check out her book. FUN SELF-ASSESSMENT, “Faith Forward Leadership Survey": https://lnkd.in/eJScGb-i BOOK: “Lead On Mission: Advance Faith at Work. Avoid Mission Drift. Build a Legacy of Eternal Impact”: https://lnkd.in/eJScGb-i Book endorsements by Mike Sharrow of C12 Business Forums, Peter Greer of HOPE International, Greg Leith of Convene, Luke Roush of Sovereign's Capital, Bill High of Legacy Stone, and others.

I have found that a GOOD paragraph’s sentences work in only one sequence, like a one-way stream, while a GREAT paragraph’s sentences may work in two or three sequences, because the ideas flow into each other, like tributaries to a river. But the sentences of a PERFECT paragraph may work in almost any order. Their relationship is symbiotic. The sentences are codependent. Causes and effects anticipate and reveal each other. The magnetism of one sentence pulls the next along, pushing the one that pulls it, and being pushed by the one it pulls. Don't get me wrong—there IS A BEST SEQUENCE. But as the paragraph gains coherence, the differences between the perfect and nearly perfect grow infinitesimal (to the consternation of the perfectionist writer or editor, ever searching for THE best). Such a paragraph is a fountain of the deep. It sends forth its strength with irrepressible concentration, waters the world with ease, then recollects itself to fuel endless future waterings.

I'm honored to have written the Editor's Afterword for "Freedom Forward," the Club for Growth Foundation's public policy handbook, and to be published alongside such distinguished policy minds! My essay draws parallels between the past 100 years of US fiscal and monetary profligacy and the last 100 years of the Roman Republic before it collapsed into imperial monarchy. It then highlights examples of this handbook's innovative, non-partisan reform recommendations that would make regulation more efficient and relevant. The subject areas are #tax, #manufacturing, #energy, #transportation, #education, and #regulation itself. Read the Afterword: "Like Bees to Honey: Inviting All Lawmakers to Save Our Republic," https://lnkd.in/e-hdbrP5 Read "Freedom Forward": https://lnkd.in/eeeJ95xP Thanks to Club for Growth Foundation Executive Director Glyn (Wright) McKay for commissioning Good Comma Editing to help maximize clarity and unity in this handbook, written by Dr. Samuel Gregg at American Institute for Economic Research - AIER, Erica York at Tax Foundation, Dan Ikenson at Ikenomics Consulting, Grant Dever at The Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, Marc Scribner at Reason Foundation, Lindsey Burke at The Heritage Foundation, Ilya Shapiro at Manhattan Institute, Joel Alicea at Catholic University's Columbia School of Law, and the Honorable William Pryor (writing originally for The Federalist Society). Also David McIntosh of Club for Growth. I'm looking forward to hearing some of these folks speak as I rendezvous with other Club Fellows in DC this weekend!

"Forced delegation": that's the reward that offsets the risk of booking yourself a close succession of heads-down, comm-out engagements. The risk is you'll fail because you overestimated your capacity. Underestimated your weakness. Bit off more than you could chew. You have to cancel or delegate. Cancelling is lame, but delegation is a pain! What is more loathsome than all that explaining you have to do, when you could just do it faster and better yourself? So we don't delegate. We know it's important, but it seldom seems as urgent as it really is. Until suddenly delegation becomes VERY URGENT. That's when your perilously tight schedule forces you to give clear, simple, complete instructions to someone who enables you to let go of things you should have let go of a long time ago. You grow as a leader. Better yet, the person to whom you delegated grows, because you've felled the tree blocking their sunlight. Providing shade for your people is good in its season, but you can't do that by overextending yourself. Get out of their way, and get out of your own way. We all do better in the sun.

Delegate or die. That's the revision of "do or die" that organizational leaders must accept to transform themselves from job- and practice-owning technicians into business-owning entrepreneurs.

Last Friday morning I speed-dialed my neighbor after looking out my bedroom window to see him backing out of his driveway with his coffee on his car roof. "Steve!" I said. He had just turned the corner, out of my sight. "Mike, hey, how's--" "Steve, your coffee is on top of your car." "What? Oh. Well, let's hope it's still there. Hang on." I heard Steve's door open. "Yep, it was still there, by a miracle. Thanks, Mike." "Yeah, man. Have a good one." "You too." Odd as it may sound, something like this frequently happens in the editing process. Most people think of editing as cutting documents down to size. They're not wrong. "Omitting needless words" is one of the most effective ways to make writing clear, correct, and concise. But just as often, good editors spot gaps between two otherwise sound thoughts--and close those gaps. "Make coffee to go." | Great idea! [GAP | Neighbor/Editor] "Drive to work." | Great idea! After a great editor has completed his or her work, few if any people besides the author should notice. It should never even occur to the reader that a gap could exist, let alone where it would be if it did exist. The author simply sounds like the best version of himself or herself: Great idea. Great idea. Great idea. (No gaps.) Like making coffee and driving to work. (No gaps.) Great idea, neighbor.

Her courage to sit herself down, grind out a draft, and move a back-burner project forward makes Phyllis Snodgrass this week's GCE-selected "leader who states the most important things clearly." Ideas for a "white paper" educating business owners and execs on the virtues of joining a "peer advisory group" had been rolling around in Phyllis's head for months. Now they're rolling around online and in the heads of Phyllis's target audience: C-level execs ready to trade in their "lone wolf" status for running with a pack of peers facing (or who have faced) similar challenges. Doing so grows them not only as business leaders but also as human beings. (Anyone else a fan of work-life balance?) A crucial element in that balance is understanding how God designed and desires human beings' relationship to work and to one another. In the C12 Central Texas group that Phyllis chairs, execs meet monthly to ground themselves in biblical teaching, talk through C12 Business Forums' proprietary Harvard Business Review-style curriculum accredited by Regent University, share challenges and advice, pitch strategic plans, and grow together. Read Phyllis's white paper, "Unlock Your Company's Full Potential: Join a C12 Business Forum": https://lnkd.in/eqAwx4AG. Then connect with her! Itching to move your own ideas from the cul-de-sac of your head onto the freeway of thought leadership? Message me. Robert Vogel Alberto Rodriguez-Baez (MBA, CGBP) Elizabeth (Liz) Driscoll Sergio Damiani David White Mike Sharrow

You've heard the expression "Jesus, save me from your followers," but the truth is Christ himself said some HARD things. Just ask Jonathan Brooks, this week's "leader who states the most important things clearly." As the lead pastor at Restoration Church in Bryan, Texas, Jonathan hired Good Comma Editing to comprehensively edit, design, and publish his latest book--The Hard Words of Christ (2024)--via our Sermon-Sourced Books program. (We sourced the raw material for Jonathan's manuscript from a sermon series he preached a few years ago.) Here are some biggies that Jonathan elucidates: 1. "Eat my flesh, drink my blood." 2. "I have come to cause division." 3. "Hate your family." 4. "Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 7:21). 5. "Unless you repent, you will perish." 6. "For you always have the poor." 7. "Your sins are forgiven." Pastors shepherd their flocks well by leaning into hard sayings in the Bible and interpreting them in light of other Bible passages. This is the heart of expository preaching taught with a high view of Scripture. Expository preaching gains new energy and effectiveness when made accessible to one's flock in book form, as Jonathan's book demonstrates. Which sayings of Christ have you (or others you know) found particularly hard to swallow? Have any of his hard words softened for you over time? READ AN EXCERPT unpacking #4 above, "Not everyone who says to me 'Lord, Lord ...'": https://lnkd.in/enuYWaVZ BUY ON AMAZON: https://lnkd.in/eYRwXMzt LEARN ABOUT SERMON-SOURCED BOOKS by Good Comma Editing: https://lnkd.in/egR7cdED