[00:00:00 – 00:00:09] Nitin Bajaj

Everyone. Welcome to the industry show. I’m your host, Nitin Bajaj. And joining me today is Darian Rodriguez Heyman. Darian, welcome on the show.

[00:00:09 – 00:00:10] Darian Rodriguez Heyman

Thank you so much for having me.

[00:00:11 – 00:00:14] Nitin Bajaj

Great to have you here. Let’s start with who is Darian?

[00:00:15 – 00:00:55] Darian Rodriguez Heyman

Let’s see. That’s a good question. I guess it depends on the context, but my work in the world is really rooted around social impact and in particular, uplifting other leaders who are working to make the world a better place, whether that’s nonprofit and NGO leaders, whether it’s mission led corporate leaders, whether it’s philanthropists, impact investors. I work a lot at the intersection of money and meaning. I’m looking at how to use strategies for social impact to also fuel business success, things like that. So I think a lot about how to make change irresistible. But really for those folks that are looking to contribute and then give back and make the world a better place, I I love helping them manifest their dreams.

[00:00:56 – 00:01:25] Nitin Bajaj

That’s amazing. Now you could have been doing many different things, making money doing many innovative and capitalistic, ventures, but you instead are working on helping people help. So tell us why you do this. Tell us what this is. And what I’m personally most interested in is the impact that you and your team have been able to create through this work.

[00:01:26 – 00:02:36] Darian Rodriguez Heyman

Yeah. I think the reality is I’ve been lucky to have already made some money. Like, I dropped out of engineering to become a teacher and at the time resign myself to a life of poverty. And next thing you know, I started, what turned out to become one of the first digital advertising agencies with some of my college friends, and that was a hugely successful endeavor. And the company peaked at almost 400 employees and half a $1,000,000,000 in annual billings, with offices in over 20 countries and 22 married couples come in with the company. Wow. So it was a very tight knit family. And shortly after we had sold it, the economy collapsed in 2,000, 2001, and it very quickly stopped being as much fun. And I went on, my first of 3 6 months sabbaticals where I kind of spent some pretty serious time reflecting on my purpose, the work I’m here to do. That was also when September 11th happened. And in that process, I really decided to that that I was done focusing my career and my professional energy on making my money for myself and other People, and instead, I really wanted to focus on social impacts. And so that’s the work I’ve been doing exclusively since starting with running the foundation for Craigslist and starting something called Nonprofit Bootcamp

[00:02:37 – 00:02:37] Nitin Bajaj

Mhmm.

[00:02:37 – 00:03:03] Darian Rodriguez Heyman

Which is really where I discovered my life’s work around helping people help, is really building the capacity of other changemakers to to impact social change, and that’s what I’ve been doing since. And nowadays, I do it as a coach, as a consultant, as an interim executive director and CEO in different projects. And like I said, I get to work with lots of different kinds of folks, some on the fundraising side, some on the grant making and philanthropy side, but always at the at the intersection of money and meaning.

[00:03:04 – 00:03:26] Nitin Bajaj

I love that intersection of money and Helping, but also what I love is the exposure you get and the type of people you get to work with. And I would imagine there’s a lot of passion involved, because most people don’t do these kind of things unless they’re extremely passionate or extremely driven to do these things. So that must be a fascinating place to be.

[00:03:27 – 00:04:28] Darian Rodriguez Heyman

It it is, and it’s also the thing I find most fascinating is getting the people involved that don’t care, that aren’t passionate, because the reality is there’s a fairly small or at least insufficient number of people who do recognize that the world is in crisis, that we’re we need to pull out of this tailspin if we are to unlock and enable the thriving and sustainable and equitable world that we all know is possible. And if it’s just that choir, that the people that get it, we’re screwed. We’re never gonna save the world at the speed and scale required. And so we need to be able to engage the people that don’t care about the climate or about gender equality or about whatever the topic is and find ways to communicate with them where we can meet people where they’re at. And that’s part of what I was saying before about sometimes it’s the corporate leaders that are really just looking at the bottom line or the investors. And if you can help them understand they can make more money by doing the right thing, that’s when significant change at that massive scale really becomes possible.

[00:04:29 – 00:04:39] Nitin Bajaj

I wanna dive deeper into that a little bit and ask you a question that furthers that to say, what is the one big challenge you’re facing?

[00:04:40 – 00:06:46] Darian Rodriguez Heyman

Let’s see. I think for me, it’s managing capacity. I have a pretty active pipeline Nitin portfolio of clients. I work with an average of about 15 clients at any given point in time. I have, you know, started and run larger organizations before, and frankly, I love the entrepreneurial side. I love the fundraising, the external side, the vision, the sales and business development, partnerships, interacting with the press. I don’t love managing people. I don’t love the operational side of being an entrepreneur. And so I’ve steered clear of that for about a decade, and I’m getting to the point where I’m at capacity and and looking to expand that, and I really like being nimble. I like having my flexibility. I’ve just had a a program manager start for me, and and that’s already working out really nicely. So it’s dipping my toes back into those waters. So I think that capacity piece is one of it, and it’s also the balancing act of the the work that I’m doing with the work I really wanna do. Most of my work historically for the last couple decades has been rooted in in the nonprofit management side and working with NGO leaders and CEOs, and I love that work. And more recently, I’ve gotten to do some of the philanthropic advising work, basically Helping wealthy people and corporate leaders give away money. And, turns out I’m really good at that. And having the fundraising perspective means I know how to best work with these grantees in a way that’s truly supportive and helpful. And so I was able to personally direct almost $25,000,000 mostly in Dayton, Ohio with a focus on advancing racial equity and worked very closely with about a dozen of those equity and worked very closely with about a dozen of those grantees to help expand their capacity. And that $25,000,000 led to over $200,000,000 of additional investment in the community. And by all accounts was a huge success, and it was deeply fulfilling for me. And so I think finding more of those corporate leaders of those high net worth investors and the leaders of industry that are looking to leave a legacy of impact and give back and be really thoughtful and and supportive about how they do that. So that’s probably the one piece that I’d really like to expand more into as I move forward.

[00:06:47 – 00:06:55] Nitin Bajaj

It’s a great challenge to have. Now on the flip side, what’s that one most exciting opportunity that you would like to share?

[00:06:55 – 00:08:24] Darian Rodriguez Heyman

I think it’s the opportunity for impact in general. I work with a lot of entrepreneurs. I have an entrepreneurial background. I have very frequently bumped up against the premise that, like, oh, I’m just gonna work work, make all the money, and then down the road Yeah. I’m gonna give it away and give back. And in my experience, it really doesn’t work that way, and the people that say that rarely do it. And at the same time, what people don’t realize is it doesn’t have to be that hard to do it now. It doesn’t have to be huge money, and it can actually improve the performance of your business. It can improve employee loyalty. It can improve even your bottom line revenue. I was running the foundation for NuMe Organic Tea, one of the largest organic and fair trade tea companies in the world, and they had been pitching the Google account for years and never got it and always got very close. And then they started talking about the fact that we launched this Together for Hope campaign to provide clean and safe drinking water to our farmers and their families who have provided clean drinking water to over 10,000 people now. And in talking about that, in talking about the premise that you can’t make tea without clean water and yet 1 in 9 people in the world that lack access, Google was inspired, and they gave them the account. And it was their largest account to date, multimillion dollar account per year, and they credited the the foundation for being the reason why they went with that decision. So the idea that you can have it all and that you don’t need to leave, I think is the biggest challenge and opportunity I come across.

[00:08:25 – 00:08:50] Nitin Bajaj

That’s amazing. Now as we look forward and what’s to come, I would love to pause and reflect and ask you to share 2 moments from your personal or professional life. 1 where things did not work out as you had expected. And there was failure. There were lessons. And another one where things exceeded your own expectation and became a success beyond your imagination.

[00:08:50 – 00:12:13] Darian Rodriguez Heyman

I think in terms of the struggle and the failure piece, it was really, as I mentioned earlier, the challenges around managing people. Mhmm. And I was running, Craigslist Foundation at the time, which had been incredibly successful. I started it from nothing out of my bedroom with, no budget, no staff, no programs, and a board that I hadn’t met in 2 years. And within my 5 year tenure, all of that was reversed. We were thriving. We had a big budget, Board of national leaders would recognize programs and, a staff, and everything was moving in the right direction. But I I recognized that I was struggling, and I’ve I’ve since learned some really big insights about leadership, about entrepreneurship that led me to step away. But 4, I was able to take entrepreneurship that led me to step away. But 4, I was able to take my hands off the wheel as it were. I was trying just through sheer force of will to make things work, and it was a great challenge. And I I also believe in radical transparency. And so when my staff at the time raised some serious and and fundamental concerns that I now see very differently with the benefit of of, age, I invited them to, you know, relay those concerns to the board and for the board to make an educated decision about what makes the most sense. And and it was a really ugly and, just a a a the opposite of graceful experience where the board basically said, this is your job, manage these People. And if they’re not respecting your leadership, you gotta fire them. And so there were a lot of things as a young idealist where I had come from a background of a company where everyone was hooking up and getting married and there were no boundaries between work and personal. And I used to think that was a very good thing and that a workplace is a family environment and that we’re all in this together and I’ve since learned that some boundaries are helpful and in fact are critical to supporting leadership. So that was a really eye opening experience for me And then I think in terms of, in terms of successes that I’m really excited about, I would say I just recently I have a new one on the horizon, but I just landed the largest social impact project in my career. The funny thing is I’m actually making better money now than I did when I was in tech. And so I haven’t had to sacrifice anything to get into this work. But I just landed a huge project with the National AIDS Memorial, the people behind the AIDS Quilt and the and the Grove, largest public works project, public arts project in the world. And, they are are going through a really interesting strategic pivot where HIV and AIDS is not what it used to be. It’s not a death sentence anymore, and and they really wanna use it as a platform to educate and inspire other movements for health equity and social justice. And so they’re gonna be launching a leadership award to identify 25 different leaders of social justice and health equity movements all around the the US, provide them with a 1 year fellowship. They’re all gonna get flown to San Francisco for 3 1 week retreats with amazing speakers like Tony Fauci. And I was selected as the lead consultant to run that whole program for 3 years to oversee the development of the curriculum and really to help this next generation of leaders and a current generation of leaders advance their own personal wellness and leadership, expand their organizational capacity for change, and also look at intersectionality and how we can really tilt our silos on their side and turn them into pipelines so that we could build bridges between these movements.

[00:12:14 – 00:12:26] Nitin Bajaj

That is amazing. Congratulations. I’m super excited to see how that plays out and see if we, being a nonprofit ourselves, can be interfacing and playing into that. So really excited for you on that.

[00:12:26 – 00:12:26] Darian Rodriguez Heyman

Yeah.

[00:12:27 – 00:12:45] Nitin Bajaj

Now in terms of this is this is fun. This is passion, but I’m sure you have a hobby or something, that you do to step off of this and, relax and rejuvenate. Would love for you to share what what your escape is, but not really.

[00:12:46 – 00:13:29] Darian Rodriguez Heyman

Yeah. Let’s see. I I have a family. I have an 8 year old and a wife, and so that’s definitely a a focal point of my life and part of why I’m so focused on balance. I think personal wellness and exercise is a part of my practice. I love travel. I studied international relations, and I’m now at the point where I can finally take trips with my family, which is lovely. We just got back from from Spain and France and had a great time there. I played Dungeons and Dragons, so I let my inner nerd out occasionally. My wife loves to make fun of me for that one. I just try to make time for for friends and reconnecting with people. I think especially since COVID, it’s People have become much more permits in our social lives. And so I’m reemerging and excited to reconnect with a lot of my old friends and colleagues.

[00:13:29 – 00:13:38] Nitin Bajaj

That’s amazing. Any book or a podcast that, you are a fan of or would like to recommend to others?

[00:13:38 – 00:13:59] Darian Rodriguez Heyman

Yeah. The book I’m really enjoying right now is Co Intelligence by Ethan Malek. I’m in the middle of writing my 3rd book on artificial intelligence for nonprofits. And so I’ve been devouring a ton of other books on AI and just seeing how other people are approaching it, and I found his approach to be really gentle and helpful and eye opening. So I’ve I’ve really been enjoying that.

[00:14:00 – 00:14:08] Nitin Bajaj

Amazing. Now onto my favorite part of the show, we call it the one line life lessons. Darian, would love to hear a few of your life lessons.

[00:14:09 – 00:15:58] Darian Rodriguez Heyman

Yeah. I collect quotes, so there’s plenty of insights that have been very helpful for me. Let’s see. Some of the ones that I think are most relevant to leadership and entrepreneurship, I would say are let me think about this. I think a lot about revolution and about change in the world, and there’s a Che Guevara quote I love that a true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love. I think a lot about, again, in the context of change and what true change really looks like, There’s an amazing quote from Henry David Thoreau, who once said that for every 1,000 that hack at the branches of evil, only  one strikes at the root, and so how do you address systemic issues at the core instead of just nipping away it, giving them in a fish? I think a lot about that. I talked earlier about as I think about collaboration a lot because I think I made this one up because I haven’t found it attributed to anybody else. I’ve looked many times, but just the premise that the rope is stronger than the thread and that together, we are stronger. And I I referenced this earlier, but Lynn Twist once talked about how we need to tilt our silos on their side and turn them into pipelines. I think that’s a really powerful image. I’ve also heard my friend Kevin Danaher, the the founder of Green Festival and Global Exchange, talk about this this notion that we’ve been tricked, we’ve been hoodwinked to believe that what kind of world is it? It’s a dog eat dog world. And yet if you look at nature, dogs don’t eat dogs. And I think it’s really important to recognize that they want us to compete, and human nature is a is a bit different than that. So those are just a couple of the ones that I think have have kept me inspired over the years.

[00:15:59 – 00:16:27] Nitin Bajaj

And thank you so much for being so candid for making the time to share your journey and story, but most importantly for being you and, being an agent of change and helping others succeed and seeing the better version of themselves. And at large, helping the community be a better place. Really appreciate it. Thank you for your continued work, and congratulations. And would love to bring you back on and talk about more of your success stories.

[00:16:27 – 00:16:47] Darian Rodriguez Heyman

I would welcome that. Thank you for having me. If I can be helpful to any of your listeners, I’m very happy to make myself available to them, you know, for a pro bono chat and just find out about what they’re struggling with and how they can make the world a better place. My website is at helping people help. com. There’s also information about my books Darian, and I’m at your service.