Two years ago, I was approached by a group of ordinary people telling me they wanted to help organize an event for the newly-founded LIPF. I had a lot of people talking, but very few doing. I was getting frustrated because as I was groping about in the dark about how I couldn’t yet determine who I could trust to get something done and who really wanted to help but wouldn’t be able to execute.
To be very clear, I am very lucky to have everybody I do helping me in this endeavor. Everybody comes to me with great intentions. Many people have brought things to my attention that, while they themselves are not able to roll out, we are able to take into the consideration pool. But as with any business, it’s execution above all that turns the dreams into reality and then takes that reality to the masses.
So where were we? Oh yeah, so two years ago, Renee Appelle came up to me and was like, “‘We’ want to support your charity and get your first event off the ground.” Ummm okay, Renee, not even sure what that means, “we”… “Well, I am part of this thing ‘City Chicks 4 Charity’… you know this.” (I didn’t… or maybe I did, just hadn’t paid much attention.) I brushed it off.
A week later… “We want to do something with your charity.” Uh huh… now to be fair, I wasn’t blowing anything off. I was trying to learn as much as I could about not-for-profits and figure out what our mission was going to be to apply to the IRS, draft a down-and-dirty business plan, etc.
And so the story continues when the tenacious Renee approached me again. That’s the thing about Renee: When she knows she is right about something, she is relentless in pursuit of her objective. Just ask Josh, her very lucky husband.
So here I am, in a very girly apartment with a bunch of very smart and determined women. Ad sales and lawyers, clipboards and notebooks open. I sort of stood there like, okay I probably should listen. Gentlemen, here is a very simple tip: When five women are determined to help you do something, it will be done. You no longer are in control… oh, and by the way, they do know better.
So we have this meeting, and amazingly, things are happening. Venues are being looked at, PayPal’s are being setup, and next thing you know, we are locked for out first event on December 17th at the Ainsworth. I didn’t know at the time that the thing you find on the runway was called a “Step & Repeat.” We got one of those.
All of a sudden, we were creeping over 200 tickets and the Flip-Cup and Beer Pong Tournament was on. I was scrambling to do my part and get the video screens set up and make a DVD. (You have no idea how hard making that video was… I spent nearly three days crying over my keyboard listening to Mumford’s “Little Lion Man” to keep me going.)
The auction stuff was rolling in until the day of. Showtime. I was still printing out auction sheets when the party officially opened. Iwas in a cab when Renee was blowing up my phone because par for the course for me, I was, in fact, late to my own party.
All in all, we raised over $16,000 in a single night. It was the beginning of what would materially affect the rest of my life. I cannot thank Renee and her army of determined Chicks for doing what they did. When five very ordinary people got together and when assembled like a female Voltron, they did the most extraordinary thing possible in putting the LIPF on the map.
We all have the ability to be extraordinary in our day-to-day. It’s just a matter of believing you can and having the support of your friends and family to do. When you look in the mirror next, ask yourself if you can challenge yourself to be extraordinary. I think you will be surprised at what you can do.
