In this episode, we talk with Mark Chamberlin. Mark spent his career in high-tech traveling the world for companies such as Cisco and PolyCom. Today, Mark calls himself a “give back advocate.” He is a volunteer for several nonprofits and finds if fun and rewarding for so many reasons. Tune-in to learn why you should join us and become a “give back advocate”, too!

Subscribe, rate, and review now wherever you listen and on: iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Spreaker

Click here for the How to Listen Guide.

Guest Bio

Mark Chamberlin is a retired Enterprise and Global Sales Leader with experience selling complex, high dollar amount technology and services solutions to Fortune 500 companies. His volunteer activity topics include interviewing skills to get into large organizations, meeting job requirements and how to get a job in 60 days.

He has extensive hiring and interviewing experience within the hi-tech industry, including working for Cisco, the team from Microsoft that developed Skype, Polycom and Avaya. His customer list includes direct “sell to” responsibility for Disney, HPE, Microsoft, T-Mobile, Nestle, REI, VISA, Ingram Micro, Toshiba, Sony Electronics, Lockheed Martin, Oppenheimer Group, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to name a few.

Mark also enjoys volunteering with Youth Employment Service, is a past Board Member, as well as a volunteer with Chapman University’s Career Center, guest speaker for the Young Alumni Society and guest lecturer with the schools for Business, Science & Technology. He is also an Executive Coach with Executive Coaches of Orange County
Education – UCSB double major: Business Economics and Communications

Show Notes

To reach Mark, you can find him on LinkedIn here. You can also go to his website, here.

Transcript

Jenn: Welcome to the You Are A Philanthropist podcast. This is Episode 31 and today we’re talking with Mark Chamberlin. Mark is a give back advocate. He spent his career in the high-tech industry working for Cisco and Polycom, and today we’re going to talk with him about his volunteer work.

Commercial 1: You are the kind of person who wants to improve the lives of others. But you need to take pride in your everyday actions. You Are A Philanthropist believes that every act of goodwill deserves to be recognized as philanthropy. Each individual action you take impacts another’s life. Believe that what you do makes a difference. So call yourself a philanthropist and start a ripple effect of generosity that boomerangs back to you. Go to YouAreAPhilanthropist.com/shop. Style your outside to match your inside. Choose a T-shirt, hoodie, or bag to show how much you love giving to others. That’s YouAreAPhilanthropist.com/shop.

Commercial 2: Hey y’all, I just want to remind you that I need you to subscribe, rate, and review to this podcast. If you’re enjoying it and want more conversations like this and want to help people get more involved with philanthropy, please subscribe, rate, and review. I want to thank you to the people who have already rated this podcast five stars. Please click to rate it five stars and here is some awesome reviews: “I love hearing the different stories from a variety of people’s personalities. We all can contribute with the strengths we have in making the world a better place for all of us to live in.” Here’s another one: “I really enjoy this podcast. It’s encouraging to see that I don’t have to be a multimillionaire who created a philanthropic foundation to impact people. It’s my small gifts of my time and resources that add up. I am a philanthropist.” And here’s another: “There are opportunities all around at an early age to remind us to look out for each other. It’s a lifelong journey of seeing the opportunities and acting in them. Thanks for a great reminder.” Listeners, please do me a favor. Subscribe, rate, and review right now so more people can hear more from us and learn more about philanthropy.

Intro: Welcome to the You Are A Philanthropist podcast with Jenn Klein, a Certified Fundraising Executive and philanthropic entrepreneur. This show is dedicated to empowering and inspiring you to make a difference in your community and our world. Jenn believes all acts of kindness matter. And this show is designed to help you take pride in your everyday actions of improving the lives of others and making a change in the world. Now, here’s Jenn.

Jenn: Mark, welcome to the show.

Mark: Jenn, thank you so much for inviting me. It’s great to participate.

Jenn: I’m so glad we connected through LinkedIn because your title says you’re a give back advocate. And as someone who– I can identify with that, definitely. I think we’re kindred spirits.

Mark: I would tend to agree with you.

Jenn: So tell us exactly what a give back advocate does today.

Mark: So when I retired and I started doing new things, I really wanted to be active. So what I did was I decided that everything that I do is going to be for free. And frankly, some of my friends thought that I was selling myself short. A lot of them thought I could become a consultant or– would be a lot of people that would pay for the services, but the way I looked at it is I’ve been working for 40 years. And a lot of what I want to do aren’t necessarily high money-making activities, but there are things that give me a lot of personal value. So I have found a number of nonprofits that I’ve been able to connect with, become associated with, as well as a private university. And they really like what I bring to the plate. So what I found is what I’m really doing is giving back, being an advocate for other nonprofit professionals, and people that I just really have a lot of respect for. So I’m busy. I’m happy, and I’m arguably more well-known now than I was in the high-tech industry.

Jenn: That’s amazing. I love that you have decided to offer your services for free. I mean, that is not something many people do. And I can tell you do it because it’s very rewarding.

Mark: Well, it is. And, kind of, I have a number of activities that I do. And, kind of how I got into this was I was actually let go from my high-tech job four years ago. And, I’ve always been very active. And, one of the things that I found is I’ve done all this global business. And, I don’t really know that many people where I live. I mean, I’ve lived in the community for a long time, but honestly, a lot of my friends were my wife’s friends or parents of my daughters. So what I did was I Googled nonprofits that were headquartered in Orange County, California. Because one of the things that I wanted to do is– I didn’t know I was going to be a giveback advocate, but I wanted to meet more friends and get involved locally. And, so I did the Google searches about four or five nonprofits came up of interest. And, the one that really caught my attention was called Youth Employment Service. And what they do is they provide education, mock interviews, through high schools so that high school kids can get first part-time jobs. And you know this is something as a parent, I’ve gone through this. And being in high-tech, I’ve hired a lot of young people. So, I thought, “Hey, this sounds like my kind of thing.” So I proactively called, asked to speak with a person in charge of volunteers, and basically said, “I am Mark. This is what I can do for you. I really like that you try to put together programs through high schools, to help students get first part-time jobs. I think that I could help you. Would you be interested?” So, they invited me into the office. We had a great first meeting. And, that really kind of led me into other things which included becoming a board member. And, that was kind of the stepping stone for me to get involved with more things. It was really that initial effort.

Jenn: That’s terrific. As a nonprofit professional for 18 years, I know that it’s not typical for someone to come right out of the blue and say, “I want to volunteer for your nonprofit.” And when it does, it’s kind of a miracle.

Mark: Well, thank you.

Jenn: Yeah, you must have been very exciting for them. And, I’m so glad to hear that you became a board member. And are you still involved with them or have you gone on?

Mark: Oh yeah,, earlier that will actually yesterday, I was supporting their efforts with Costa Mesa High School, and the funny thing is that is where my wife went to high school. And they’re involved with a program for teaching these skills really to all of the seniors of the high school as part of their graduation. And, part of what’s so rewarding is I go into the library to support the efforts of the nonprofit. I meet the other volunteers, and I talk to a volunteer who we just had a lot in common. And, so it’s like my friendships grew, and I spoke with three high school seniors, and I was just so impressed with. They were very different. They handled the interview questions very, very well, and what I do is when I do a mock interview with somebody, I basically say, “We have curriculum for you to get a first part-time job in a retail store. That I will adapt to whatever first-time job you will want.” And, we’ll kind of do the mock interview that way.

Mark: And, what I find is that that kind of brings out the best in all high school students, because there’s high school students that they love animals. So I say, “Well, let’s pretend you’re interviewing with PetSmart or Petco,” because I actually have high-tech experience dealing with them. Or, maybe hospitality is what they want to do. So, what I found is, by just adapting to these young adults, it gets them excited about the job interview process. And, I even talked to a student a couple of weeks ago, and what he really wanted to do is be a long-distance truck driver. So, it kind of stretched myself there, but we talked about that. And, so for me, it’s really rewarding to see these young adults really come alive through the nonprofit experience.

Jenn: That’s terrific. Would you call yourself an extrovert?

Mark: Yes.

Jenn: Okay. Because I’m curious for our listeners who might be introverts if this would be out of their comfort zone. And, I wonder if youth employment services as other opportunities for people who might not be so interested in communicating with people all the time.

Mark: They absolutely do. And here’s the thing, many of the nonprofit professionals that I work with are introverts. But, they’re very thoughtful. They’re very knowledgeable. They’re very caring. And for the most part, your working with somebody else, one-on-one, where you have a curriculum, and you know more than they do. So it’s very easy for many, many different skill sets to get involved with nonprofit services.

Jenn: That’s terrific. I totally agree. And, I learned the other day that 25% of Americans volunteer, and for the 75% who don’t volunteer, 90% of them say it’s because they don’t have the time. And, I just see the opportunity if people could find the time, there would be more interest in working in nonprofits. And, I wonder what advice you would have for people who maybe are concerned about finding the time or squeezing it in what your advice would be for looking for more time in their schedule.

Mark: Well, I really believe that it comes down to priorities, because I came from the kind of background where–I mean, for 40 years, I worked 11 hours a day and traveled and I was not around or as present as I wish I had been. But, when I was here, there were a lot of things that I could do. For example, I’ve been an elder in a church, and I have done things to nonprofits to help build structures. So the thing is, you can find time. You may not be able to do it on a regular basis. But, once your name is circulated and you’re kind of using skills that you’re good at – and we’ve heard of those as transferable skills – then it’s something that you enjoy. It’s something that you look forward to. And, I think that is the key.

Jenn: Yeah. I think that’s such a good point. I also think about the opportunity for people who are unemployed or in between jobs, the opportunity that they have to get involved and get their foot in the door and gain skills in working in a nonprofit as well.

Mark: Well, I can certainly jump in on that because coming from my industry, I have a lot of friends in high-tech that are in job transition. That could mean a couple of things. It could mean that they lost their job, or it could mean that they are actively looking because they are afraid of certain things. And frankly, I have a number of these conversations with people my age more often than you might think. And, the way a lot of the conversation goes is: if you’re looking for a new position, whether you have a job or not, everybody wants to know what you’re really doing. And, if you can talk to how you are actively involved leveraging your strengths, it doesn’t have to be in the same industry.

Mark: And, what you’re going to find just by being proactive and doing things is, you’re going to have more things to talk about. It’s important when you go into an interview to be able to say, “Well, one of the things that I’m doing right now is, I am helping,” let’s say, “college students learn about life skills.” One of the things that I do is, I’m a guest lecturer, and I give workshops at Chapman University on things like the value of having a mentor, how to get a job in STEM. I recently did a session on goal setting and networking and how do you give an elevator pitch. And, so the thing is if you are giving back to your college or to a nonprofit, and you are actively engaged with things like elevator pitches, that’s a very transferable skill for job interviewing. So, just by having things to talk about and staying energized and staying positive, to me, those are the kind of new employees that people with career jobs want to hire.

Jenn: Wow, that’s such a good point. And, yeah, you of all people can talk about this. I think about, like you said, people who are between jobs or unemployed and how difficult it can be at times to be applying for jobs all the time or to not have the routine of going to work and to have the feelings of, “What am I here for?” And, plugging into a nonprofit can really give them some meaning and something to do, like you said, go have connections. As you and I know and agree, there are so many wonderful reasons to get involved in a nonprofit.

Mark: One of the other things that surprised me is when I became a board member. I was not a high person on the totem pole when it came to the board. I mean, the other board members were extremely accomplished professionals. So, we had a bunch of MBAs. We had a lawyer. We had people with well-known, global wealth management experience, CPAs, a number of consultants who were HR professionals and had their own businesses. I was extremely impressed when I joined the board how so many professional and smart people there are that are giving back and helping with their knowledge and skills. So I mean, this is for an organization that helps young adults and high school students, but if you get involved at the board level for other organizations, you’re going to find you get an opportunity to meet new professionals who can say, hey, I know Mark Chamberlain. You should talk with him. And now, you have a different set of references, in addition to the people that you’ve worked with in the past.

Jenn: Yeah, that’s something I haven’t even thought of. So, Mark, I’m curious, is there a greatest source of inspiration for you for getting into nonprofits? Was there something that sparked a recent interest or was it something you always had an interest in? Where did you get started with getting back into nonprofits?

Mark: Well, I started giving back when a number of my friends said, “Hey, would you talk to my son or daughter in high school about whatever because you’ll probably say the same thing that I would, but they are more likely to listen to you.” And, so that’s where I started getting practice talking to high school and college students about things like how to get in a high-tech because there were a lot of young people that had interest in that. And, I did a give-back experience when I was with Cisco, where I actually taught for half a day at an elementary school in downtown Santa Ana, and what I did was–here I am talking to third and fourth graders and the teacher’s kind of sitting over at the side and I just said, “Well, if I’m going to talk to this age group, I have to be real and I have to talk about something that I know of. I’m going to be talking for three hours.” So I kind of came up with my own business real-life 101 for kids. So, what I did was I talked about, well, how does a bank work? How does a grocery store work? How does a restaurant work? And, when you’re talking to kids, they may be more interested in the laptop that [laughter] you’re using. Hey, show me the stuff. Show me the technology on your laptop. And, what I found is if I can connect with people that are, let’s just say, eight or nine years old and make this fun for them, a lot of making an experience interesting as a nonprofit is truly connecting with people. So when I did that, I remembered those experiences when it came time for me to retire. And when one of my friends said, “Mark, take a year. Don’t just jump right back into the same kind of job you had before,” I started remembering where my give-back activities were for very short amount of time and that’s when I picked up the phone, I called different nonprofits, and it all kind of grew from there.

Jenn: Wow. That is so cool. I haven’t had a guest talk about a corporate give-back program before and it’s very exciting for me to hear about how significant that experience was for you and kind of really helped you navigate the retirement, which I know for many, retirement can be a time of change that can be difficult as well. Would you say that has been your experience?

Mark: Well, so I have a lot of friends my age who either have their own business where they’re physicians or professionals and they don’t say that they’re too busy. What they say is, well, I don’t know what I would do if I retired. So, I’m kind of an advocate for here’s an example of things that you can do. So, one of my favorite nonprofits that I’m involved with now is called Executive Coaches of Orange County, and there are 40 coaches like me. Everything we do through this organization is giving back for free, and we provide professional coaching to just nonprofit professionals, whether they be an Executive Director, or a CEO of a nonprofit, or a kind of my specialty is what I call rising stars. The people in the organization that aren’t necessarily running things but they’re doing a lot of the work and can benefit from being able to talk with somebody like me or one of the other coaches who’s outside of their organization so that they can bounce ideas off of them. And our group helps them one-on-one with things like leadership, how to deal with boards, how to deal with conflicts and create resolution between team members, how do you effectively transition your fundraising activities now that the COVID is sort of over? And, our organization has professionals from Wells Fargo Bank. They have professionals who are now professional coaches from all kinds of industries, again, people from HR, people from finance. So, what’s really interesting is I now involve with a lot of killer smart successful professionals who are giving back and again I’m probably the low person on the totem pole, but I’m having fun. And I’m interacting with interesting people.

Jenn: What would you say is your most favorite aspect of volunteering?

Mark: Well, I enjoy that people appreciate what I bring to the plate. And, you can tell that I have high energy. I know what my strengths are. I’m using my strengths. I’m meeting new people. And, there’s nothing more rewarding than having a high school or a college student, or what I call a rising star, just look at you and just thank you for kind of the wisdom that you’re sharing and showing that you get them. So, I call it fun but what it really is, is I enjoy that emotional connection. And, that is my reward as a give-back advocate.

Jenn: Well, I just love how you talk about gratitude. It’s something that is– it’s actually my word of the year. something I’m trying to practice every day is waking up and going to bed thinking about things I’m grateful for. Not that I wasn’t good at it before, but I realized it’s power over the last few months. And I even I’m writing a book called Giving a Selfish and I talk a whole chapter on thanksgiving. That’s another way we have as being thankful. And that’s a gift. And how important it is to generosity. One of the experiences that I’ve had in working with my local food pantry is I go and pick bags up from my neighbor’s porches and bring it to the food pantry. And, I’m thanking my neighbors, my neighbors are thanking me, and the staff who are delivering the bags are picking up the bags from me are thanking me. And I’m sure the recipients of the pantry are thanking them. Gratitude is so important and so powerful and I just love how you brought it up today.

Mark: Well, I think gratitude is critical and I’m really glad that you’re bringing that up. One of the things that I see in working with a lot of nonprofit professionals that I didn’t necessarily see in the high-tech or the Fortune 500 world is you’re working with people that are just such good people. And, these people are smart, they’re very caring, they have a sense of personal mission. And, I’ve told a number of the people that I’ve worked with – and if they listen to this they’re going to know who they are – that I could absolutely see you working for Cisco or Microsoft or other large organizations involved with your passion where you take this experience and you grow and then maybe you come back to a nonprofit and you’re running the whole deal. So, it’s very important for people to know that there’s a lot of successful professionals who are in the corporate world and then they go to government, they’re involved with education, and they are also involved with nonprofits. And, I think it’s important that people know that including nonprofit on your professional resume can in many cases be a positive.

Jenn: Absolutely. Yeah. No, I’m so glad you talk about how for-profit professionals can move into the nonprofit sphere and back and forth and that one is not better than the other different and we really need to work more closely together. I don’t like this kind of silos, I think corporate giving programs like you already talked about is a crucial way. Having companies be more sustainable is such a crucial way we can work together. And I do wish there was more connection between the for-profit and the nonprofit world.

Mark: Well, I completely agree.

Jenn: So, I was wondering what your advice for listeners is if they are unsure of what they can be doing, maybe haven’t been able to take that first step yet. What you would say about why they should get involved and how they can get involved?

Mark: Well, my advice would be any time you try something new, there’s often going to be a benefit. And, the key is to really think what your strengths are and know that there’s many different paths for these strengths. And, one of the things that I found when I had these conversations with my wife and my two daughters is I got so much kind of reaffirmation from them because, I mean, honestly, my wife and daughters have been extremely supportive of me and my career. And, they didn’t really know what I did, but now they do. I mean, one example is–so my wife is an artist and she comes from an advertising background. And, she’s been a creative director and she went to an art center after college to get a further degree. And, one of the things she did was she taught art to elementary school kids through a program called Meet The Master. So, she actually worked with a lot of elementary teachers and kids, and that’s where I got a chance to see kind of giving back real life. And, during Halloween, kids would come around the neighborhood. They’d come to our house and they didn’t know that my wife lived there. And, they would see my wife who’s their art teacher and you would just see the kids’ faces light up. Mrs. Chamberlin, I didn’t know you lived here. So, my wife was the rockstar. It wasn’t me.

Mark: And, when I look at my daughters, my daughters have been so supportive of everything I do. They want to know what I’m doing, so I tend to probably over text them. But, one of my daughters is involved with events. And, she has done many events for nonprofits, for fundraising. And, a lot of people know who my daughter is. And, then my other daughter left positions in high-tech and real estate development to get her master’s in teaching. And, what she does now is she works for an all-girls high school in San Francisco where they go to school four days a week and then, they do one day a week in an internship program that’s either a corporate, government, or a nonprofit related. And, it’s all about female empowerment. So, I’ve kind of gone from being a high-tech dad and husband to a give-back advocate. And, now my daughters actually know what I do. So, I guess my advice to a lot of the other people who are out there that are thinking about things is kind of step back and think of your life more of that wagon wheel where your life has made about five, six, or seven or more things, how do you layer giving back into the wagon wheel because you’re the one that’s going to feel more fulfilled, which kind of gets back to the title of your book.

Jenn: Yeah. I love what you talked about your family. Obviously, family is a very important aspect of our lives. And, you have been a great role model to your family.

Mark: Thank you.

Jenn: And, they’re supporting you and you support them. Care giving is actually one of the chapters I wrote in my book. Care giving is such an important way that people give back to their families. And, I can tell you and your wife were wonderful partners and now your daughters are helping others. It’s a very beautiful thing.

Mark: Well, thank you.

Jenn: Mark, I’m curious when you think about all the problems in the world – and we can’t ignore them because they’re constantly on the television – I wonder what your vision is for what you hope the world could be like in the future.

Mark: Well, I think that’s a really good question. To me, what I see is when generations get together and they learn about each other and they work as a team to accomplish missions that have kind of a definite goal. And, then they realize that things have to change just because of realities. But, you still have the goal that you want to meet, that I could be dealing with a high school student or a college student where somebody in their 20s or 30s or 40s and when you bring the skill sets together, a lot of young adults are really good at remembering new things. So, they go to college, so it’s a perfect age for that. So they learn new information quickly, and that’s why you see a lot of new– a lot of young adults in high-tech.

Mark: And then you see people in their 40s, and a lot of board directors in their 40s, and they’re at the point where they know how to make management decisions. They know how to deal with pressure, they have a read for people, and they’re willing to accept some risk to try to drive the process forward. So, it’s important to have these age groups working together. And, then you have people in their 50s and 60s who have seen many of the obstacles that the world has to work with. So, this is where you start getting involved with wisdom. One of the things that I think I bring to the plate now is I’m a much faster read of people than I used to be.

Mark: I used to be really trusting of everybody. And, my wife was a much better read of character than I was because I kind of felt like in business, “Well, I can deal with anybody and I can make a deal happen,” because that was the skill set that was necessary. But see, now, I know the kind of people that I want to work with. So, if I’m working on a team and I suspect that we may be going astray because I’ve kind of gone through that experiences before, that now if you have young, if you have middle-aged, if you have more senior members on that team working together, I really think you’ll hit a better mark. And, the results will probably happen faster because you have better input.

Jenn: Yeah, that’s such a good point. In fact today, I was thinking about ChatGPT. And, I attended a webinar, and my colleagues and I were talking about it. And, I was thinking about how each of the generations are going to be using this differently and, who knows? I have no idea what it’s going to be like to be used in the future. But for me, I didn’t grow up on social media. So, I have a perspective to offer people who are very excited about this new technology and they’re young and they’re using it already. And, so I think that, like you were saying, the perspective of multiple generations is really important to work together in this fast-paced, rapidly changing technological world we live in now.

Mark: Well, Jenn, I think you bring up something that’s really critical because it’s easy to look at the new thing. And, when you take three steps back, just to put chat AI into perspective–I’m not trying to downplay it because actually, with Executive Coaches of Orange County, we did kind of a role-play. And, all the coaches work together to try to solve a problem. And, then one of the coaches pulled up the chat AI. What did they say? And, I guess my observation was that they were pretty much right on for a relatively simple project. But, what it didn’t really do is it didn’t weigh priorities. It didn’t layer personalities or really how to highlight or really emphasize what was most important because those are personal skills.

Mark: And, it almost reminded me when I was in college when CliffNotes were available. And, every professor could tell if you were writing your paper based on CliffNotes because it was all really good generic information. And, then it reminded me of–kind of fast-forward, everybody used to use map books. And, here in Southern California, we all had Thomas Brothers map books to get from one place to another. And, then all the mapping software came out, and Google Maps is what everybody uses right now. And, absolutely, Google Maps is better than using some of these other maps unless you are in Yellowstone National Park trying to get around, and there’s absolutely no cell or wireless service. And, my wife and I found that out just a couple of months ago. We were driving around and everything went out. We had to go back to regular maps.

Mark: So, when you look at the evolution of the internet and other things, a lot of these technologies do have good purposes. But it doesn’t mean they’re going to solve all the problems. It’s people leveraging technology to solve real problems, and to me, that’s what’s important. And yes, if technology can give you basic mapping or helping you to see something that you as an individual were not aware of, that’s good because there’s a lot of benefits to AI. But, I don’t think that people should be afraid of those things, because we are the ones that determine how we use the technologies.

Jenn: Yeah. It also makes me think about how some people believe that, “Oh, if I can’t give away millions of dollars, then I shouldn’t be giving back.” And, the reality is that people like Bill and Melinda Gates can only use their money because of the people who are doing the work. So, we really need people on the ground to be fulfilling the work that finances allow them to do. And that’s why, going back to what you’re saying about all needing to work together, it reminds me that, yeah, no technology, no amount of money can replace people working together.

Mark: Well, I agree with you. That’s a complete bullseye. And, I think there are–as a generality, there’s people that write checks and then they don’t do anything else. And, then there’s people that do a lot of the real work, and volunteers are key to the success of any nonprofit organization, whether they be at the feet-on-the-streets level, the board level, or just a behind-the-scenes mentor helping individuals to do a better job. And, so there’s all different kinds of levels of giving. And, I don’t think anybody should be intimidated by “rich people”. I think if you give in such a way that you feel good–like one of the things that I do where when it comes to fundraising, I’m different from people. I write–well, I don’t actually write a check–I send, through an application on my credit card, money to some of the nonprofits that I am most interested in. And, I do it on January 1st, and I reach out to fundraising professionals and I say, “I want to be the first person to donate money for your cause this year.” So, I would rather be known as the first person than the last, because nobody remembers the people with the other year. But to me, that’s just part of my being a give-back advocate, showing that you can always count on me, even at the beginning of the year. It may not be for as big a dollar amount as we all wish, but I’m in the game.

Mark: That’s awesome. Yes. Start fresh in a new year. Start it off right and get people excited about the work we all do.

Jenn: Well, Mark, it’s been terrific to talk to you, and I always am mindful of what our listeners might be doing while we are recording this episode. So, I don’t want to talk too much longer. But, is there anything that you’d like to say that we didn’t discuss yet? I want to make sure that all the good wisdom that you’ve given today and everything we’ve talked about is out in the open because what you have said today has been so wonderful.

Mark: Well, thank you. I think one of the messages to leave actually came from my wife just a couple of days ago, when I was getting ready to drive to Costa Mesa High School to do the mock interviews through Youth Employment Service. And she said, “So what are you going to do today?” I said, “You know what, I am in just such a good mood. I’m getting ready to go to Costa Mesa High School and interact with high school students.” And you know what? She just kind of looked at me, and she said, “Do you realize you probably didn’t say that for 40 years?” And, people forget that they kind of get in job mode. And when you feel energized about doing something new that you feel good about, it isn’t all about being fun. It’s about you feeling personally rewarded, that I think if more people or the people that are listening can kind of tie into that personal reward, that that’s what creates more giving.

Jenn: Yeah, that’s great. I do call fundraising fun-raising because most days I have fun.

Mark: Well, I understand that.

Jenn: Mark, I’d like to make sure our listeners know how they can get in touch with you or your organization that you work for. So, we can put those in the show notes, but can you just give it to us right now?

Mark: Sure. So there’s two ways. I have a personal website that is Mark, M-A-R-K, Chamberlin, C-H-A-M-B-E-R-L-I-N.net. So if you pull that up, you’ll see me, and you can– there’s a way that you can contact me through that. The easiest way is through LinkedIn, because Jenn and I and almost everybody that I work with are on LinkedIn. And, if you pull up Mark Chamberlin, again, my last name is spelled C-H-A-M-B-E-R-L-I-N, Give Back Advocate, then you’ll see all about me. And, then you can ping me or direct message me through LinkedIn. That’s probably the easiest way. So between those two things, you’ll be able to reach me.

Jenn: Awesome, Mark. I hope you get a flood of requests because what you do for others is so valuable. And, I know you’re willing to help anyone. I can tell you have a big heart and love what you do. Thank you so much for speaking with me and my listeners today.

Mark: Well, Jenn, thank you so much for letting me participate. I love all the things that you’re doing, and I just I’m happy to be a team member with you.

Jenn: Awesome. I love it. Let’s talk again.

IMPHILANTHROPIC, LLC, owns the copyright in and to all content in and transcripts of the You Are A Philanthropist podcast, with all rights reserved, including right of publicity.