Theodora/EDI June Trip Report

 Well I could not have spoken truer words a few days ago when I made the Wait, Wait, Wait...Hurry Up post. Not only have things been moving hot and heavy in terms of the # of meetings, but the content and the progress has been amazing as well. There was so much that happened, I will try to go through it in pieces.

Theodora Ghana Virtual Assistants:

My primary focus for TGVA was ensuring we had focus and action on important strategic projects during the period we'll be missing our local manager and leader M during her maternity leave. There are things we need to do for developing our lead generation capability, using AI internally for our own operations, optimizing our website for the new AI based search environment, capturing what each VA does for their clients for purposes of back-up if a VA is ill or unavailable, and developing the ability to produce our own short-form videos for donation and business development capture. 

I was hoping to assign each of these to one of the VA's to take charge of. In the past, there would have been difficulty getting the team to buy-in and follow through. Hardly the case this time! They were enthusiastic, energetic, proactive and had their own ideas of how to best pursue these. 

Furthermore the chemistry between the three Senior VAs was so positive, warm and mutually supportive. Unlike what I've seen before over the many years we've worked on this project. 

TGVA Foundation & the Rotary Funded Training

Of necessity, the Rotary Grant Funded Training had to work through the non-profit, education only pathway. All know my feelings that education only doesn't work. HOWEVER, as my colleague in Ghana, JA, points out to me, it is the way that the game is played. Charitable and non-profit funding sources simply have an aversion (rightly or wrongly) about funding a 'for-profit' business, even if that business is run and operated exclusively for the benefit of its participants. 

The success of our Grant, the obvious advance in capability of those we trained, who were trained exclusively by our existing people, has gotten all of the entities involved (Muslim Family Counseling Service, Rotary Club to End Human Trafficking, and Rotary Club of Accra Spintex) to be talking about what other projects we could be doing to promote our mission. 

Economic Development Initiative

One of these is expanding the entrepreneur coaching and training. We are in talks with both Spintex club and MFCS on ways to do this. 

New Opportunities

And, completely out-of-the-blue, has come a new opportunity, an opportunity to work on getting a permanent home for our projects (both Theodora and EDI). I was meeting with two of our board members after the official graduation ceremony for those completing the Rotary funded training. We were talking about the need for Theodora to get out of the rented office rat race (where you are constantly dealing with landlords jacking up rents). Buying a house (a common practice here for getting business office space) is an attractive option as we need rooms for our people who come long distance to stay during the work week. 

We thought that this would mean coming up with all cash. However, one of the board members works for large bank's mortgage lending department. She told us the bank will be rolling out a program for commercial borrowers soon. They also do construction loans. Why is that important? Our grant partner, MFCS owns a large tract of land in central Accra that they've never been able to exploit because they lack the funds. If we were to provide construction funding, the land were serve as a down payment. 

All this is very much in the researching phase. But when one considers where we were a couple of years ago, it is pretty heady stuff.  

Starting On The Road To Podcast Guest Fame

Actually I have no idea if I am going to achieve Podcast Guest Fame or even what Podcast Guest Fame is. I do know that I have set myself on a road to speaking on podcasts. 

"Why? say you.

In search for lightning strikes.

"Lightning strikes? You ask.

Lightning strikes is a euphemism for being discovered. 

"And who do you want to be discovered by? " 

Someone who would be excited by the Theodora cause and solution and has the resources to help us get to the next level. At this late stage in my life, I don't have the energy to do that tireless slog of trying to find the right partner via more empirical methods. So we're doing what we can do get the story out as broadly and as widely as we can. Ideally it would be one of our women who would be doing the podcast speaking, but they are simply not confident enough at this point to be out there telling their story to strangers week after week. 

I've been asked how does one become a guest on a podcast. There are a couple of services that link up podcast hosts with those that want to speak as guests. We use one called Podmatch. It is a paid service. You put your information up. And you can search for Podcasters that you feel you would fit. The podcasters also search looking for guests that would fit the theme of their podcasts. It is not easy filling in those speaking slots week after week after week.

You would not believe how many freaking podcasts there are out there. I have not a clue as to whether any of them are getting results for their hosts or not. Most (at least the ones I'm on) seem to be passion projects. As I am at the bottom rung of the podcast ladder, the number of hosts that I've been impressed with have been few. But you can tell the difference fairly easily between the ones that have a good handle on their interview style and overall what they are doing, and those that are still trying to figure it all out.

But, my objective at this point, is to get practice delivering on this platform, start developing a reputation as a good interview with an interesting twist, develop content we can use on our other platforms, and start working up the food chain to podcasters with greater and greater audiences in hope of 'being found'. 

We will see how it goes. 

Working The Theodora Succession

If you remember the drama of only a year ago, you will know the wonderment with which I write this post. As I first reported in January, Theodora has been solidly cash flow positive through out this year and has resolved a number of infrastructure issues. As we are moving to the 6-month mark of the year, client churn (which has been our bane) has dropped substantially. We have had a number of significant clients (in terms of complexity of service provided) come on board with our team rising to the challenge to learn and master what the clients need. 

Also back in January, I wrote about how our local team (both Manager M and the Ghana Board) had worked to get a Grant for training, had recruited new candidates, and were training the same. That grant period is coming to an end. The new trainees have progressed substantially. Theodora will be picking up their training stipends because they are starting to genuinely contribute to our work. They have a ways to go before they are ready to handle a client solo. But the fact that the recruiting and training was all done by our internal group, says volumes about Theodora's potential to be sustainable.

So as I absorbed all this, I began to realize that we are no longer trying to prove our concept. We are no longer making the case that we can make credible virtual workers for U.S. business use from a pool of African women with significant disadvantages. We've shown that. Now we are on to the next phase where we need to solidify what we've accomplished and build a base to grow and bring more women into opportunity. 

As luck would have it, I was speaking on a podcast (I will make a post about being on podcasts soon) a few weeks ago where the host, rather than interviewing me, was actually giving the me, the guest, all kinds of ideas for how to create redundancy. Out of this has come a number of projects which we will be looking to implement. Practically, there is way more on the list than we realistically have the bandwidth to work on. So the team and I will need to consider them and be somewhat discriminate in which we take on and how much within each we take accomplish over the next six months. 

Nonetheless, it is a refreshing and exciting place to be at considering all the trials and challenges we've gone through. 

Breakthrough!

I was about halfway through this week in Ghana when a number of things hit my consciousness.

First, Theodora Ghana Virtual Assistants' billings and collections for January and February were going to result in substantial surplus cash flow over our required monthly operating expenses. 

Second, assuming we can maintain this level of client billings (and all indicators are that we should), we will be able to accumulate all of the money we need for our annual office rent (we pay rent once a year in advance). This is the first time we have been able to pay our rent out of operating funds. 

Third, by mid-February, will have repaid all the salary arrears we accrued during the lean months of 2025.

Fourth, for the first time ever, we will not use any donated funds to cover operating expenses!

Fifth, instead, we have been able to get this week three major items that have been on our list of 'must haves' in order to be a truly professional operation.

• Truly reliable internet connection via a Starlink system
• Reliable power back-up through the purchase of a backup generator
•  Retention of a trauma counselor to provide this necessary resource for our people. 

Sixth, as we go into 2026, I have come to the realization that we really don't need to do any fundraising in order to be able to get TGVA up to snuff.  

 We still need to develop a reliable new business acquisition system. That takes years but we are getting started. We still are very vulnerable to the loss of clients. But for the first time since we started, I believe we can say we are truly a business capable of paying its own way.

 

Doing Nothing - A Succession Success Story

Between late last week and early this week a minor crisis took place at Theodora in Ghana. Our new trainees were not paid. 

The problem came about because of a mistake where 800 Cedis (local currency) were sent rather than 800 US Dollars. The Cedi is worth about 10 Cents at the moment. I understand that it was an error by one of the banks involved though I don't actually know this for a fact. 

The process for the Grant money that is funding this is convoluted. It is sent from the U.S. Rotary Club, to the Club in Ghana. They, in turn, send it to the organization which recruited the women, Muslim Family Counseling Service. Finally it gets to M at Theodora who distributes it to the women being trained in the program. 

I am on the WhatsApp group that includes everyone from the four entities that are engaged in this Grant. I watched the frustrated communication go back and forth for days. And here is where, I suppose, I show myself to be selfish. Because I am repeating my gratitude mantra. "How cool is this"  and feeling very happy and grateful. Because I am TOTALLY not involved with it. It is the responsibility of others. And I know they will take care of it because they are competent people who care. 

How Cool Is This. 

Theodora & Other African Social Impact Program Update - Part Four

This is the last of the four-part series on the status of the African social impact projects. In Parts One and Two, I laid out the status of two primary projects, Theodora and Rotary Club to End Human Trafficking Economic Development Initiative (Gad that's a mouthful. I wish I could find a shorter way other than an acronym to get it across). In Part Three, I set out the specific goals I have for the coming year. In Part Four, I am going to let myself stretch a bit from what is clearly doable, to what I am hoping to pull off.

As I sit here, 78 years old, I see one project (Theodora) that is getting really close to true sustainability. I see the other project (EDI) getting close to proof of concept. If we hit the short-term goals, Theodora has a real opportunity to survive and continue even if I am gone. EDI has a bit further to go. If even Theodora alone becomes self-sustaining, that would be quite the win. 

However, I think there is a possibility I can take what has been accomplished so far and use it to build something that has longer-term potential even without me. That is what's critically important. It has to work without me. 

It's too early to go into specifics, but I find I am in the hub of a number of situations that would be much more powerful working as one than working independently. The critical two are led by people who have similar personal situations as me. They don't have forever to take what they're doing and turn it into something sustainable.I need to slowly and patiently start building bridges between the entities and individuals so that the case for joining forces becomes more obvious. 

So my long-term goal is to see if I can pull off this merging of resources and create a social impact entity, based on the principles I've developed at Theodora and EDI, which has sufficient size and funding to become an on-going entity, an entity that will be able to afford professional leadership. 

Theodora & Other African Social Impact Program Update - Part Three

Continuing our update on all things Theodora and Social Impact

Short-Term Goals 

For Theodora:

Our day-to-day operations are finally solid. Our current cash flow is strong enough that even if we lost a couple of clients, we would not be thrown into cash flow negative situation. So the goals I have set for this year are: 

• Pay down all the debt that we took on to cover us during the development years and the recent cash flow negative years. To accomplish this goal, we would have to not have a client loss set back like we've had in the past. But if we can avoid that, it is doable.

• Get a working new business development/lead generation system launched so the business can free itself from dependence on me.

•  Find some kind of mentoring/coaching for M so she can develop and grow as a manager and leader, and not have to learn everything OJT and the 'hard way'.

•  Add sufficient new clients that we can hire the women who are currently in training.

• Get the Rotary Club of Accra Spintex to take Theodora on as one of its long-term projects.

For EDI:

 

 We finally have a beta test with an organization that provides a model for replication. 

•  We need to have success in getting this model up and running. Knowing as I do the obstacles you face doing these things, I know it will not be easy.

•  Find at least one other similar situation, hopefully two, with which we can test the model. A population of one is too small to provide data on how to build something scalable. 

• Secure funding from the club to handle seed funding for those in the program building businesses.

• Develop a model for paying the volunteers that are providing the critical knowledge to make the program work. 

For de-I:

 

Over the last six months, I have successfully divested myself of virtually every bit of operational detail related to both projects. This has been shown by:

•  The training grant for Theodora that was developed and is being executed with virtually no involvement by me.

• My total non-involvement in any day-to-day activities at the virtual assistant business.

• My lack of involvement in any of the detail related to the new EDI project.

What I am getting to do is deals, putting together the various players in a way to make projects come to life. And if you know my past business career, you know that his is putting me in my sweet spot, the spot where I can be engaged in an extremely valuable way, but am not doing anything that sucks energy out of me. So this year, I want to show that I can put more of these 'deals' together that drive the mission forward. 

Theodora & Other African Social Impact Program Update - Part Two

Economic Development Initiative (EDI) Today

 Engaging with the Rotary Club to End Human Trafficking in 2020 brought a much greater exposure to the issue of human trafficking than my small slice of experience in Ghana. As I learned more, and compared what I heard to what I was experiencing with Theodora, I became even more convinced that economic opportunity, the availability of jobs, was critical to reducing the number of people vulnerable to trafficking. 

This led to my presenting to Club leadership, a proposal that we should get involved in grassroots economic development. To my shock, they were Gung-ho. Fortunately, I was almost immediately able to find a couple of resources, experienced at doing just the kind of economic development I envisioned who liked what I proposed and offered to make available their services on a volunteer basis. 

This program was based on providing pragmatic, hands-on entrepreneur training combined with on-going business coaching. It aimed at populations that would never be able to do a Theodora type of program. And we were going to offer it for free! With great enthusiasm we sought out organizations to partner up with us. 

We immediately hit a wall. Our program required local mentors to be trained to do the actual coaching of the start-up entrepreneurs. What we found was that most people we approached, didn't have the surplus time to do the training and mentoring. So we languished. 

This year, however, through local contacts here in New Mexico, I found a group that was supporting a school for orphaned children in Zambia. They'd been operating for 25 years and had great concerns about what was happening to the children once they finished school. After a number of months of exploration, they made a decision to adopt the program. It made great sense as they were already paying teachers so could dictate to the teachers the additional training and coaching. This has resolved the finding of mentors problem. 

They had their kick-off meeting for the teachers and staff with 25 people participating. Our goal is to get the 90 children in the Senior and Junior classes in the entrepreneur training by the second quarter of the year. 

I am absolutely positive we will find unforeseen obstacles. Hopefully we will overcome these and see some degree of successful business creation. If we do, we will have our model for expanding this program.  

Theodora & Other African Social Impact Program Update - Part One

Way back in November, I blithely mentioned in a transition subject post that I would provide a separate update on the subject of the Theodora Project and my Rotary Club to End Human Trafficking Economic Development Initiative (EDI) project. Well here we are in January and I am just getting around to it. I'm going to organize this into four sections. And because as I started to write this I realized it is going to be very long, I am going to break it down into four separate posts

• Theodora today update
• EDI today update
• Short-term goals
• Long-term transition goals

Theodora Today 

Amazing as it may seem, Theodora Ghana Virtual Assistants is operating very stably. We are currently running cash flow positive. My manager, M, has stepped up to the plate and runs everything day-to-day operationally. I have no involvement with clients, with work product, facility operations, training, etc. When one considers our mission, and how far our people had to go to be commercially relevant, this is pretty amazing. I am still running our finances. And we have a big challenge to develop a business development system. (See Short-Term Goals)

One of the major events taking place over 2025, was our receiving a District International Grant via my Club to train new participants. This is a big deal for many reasons.

Obviously it is important because it provides the funds to do the training we need to grow. However, it also provides validation that others see our concept works. To understand this, you need to understand how this grant came to be because I had nothing to do with it. 

Manager M also sits on the Board of our Rotary Club. The Club, for its own reasons, wanted to get an international grant done. The key leaders went to M and asked her if Theodora could use funds. As it turned out, we had been wanting to train some new people provided by our prospective partner, the Muslim Family Counseling Service but had lacked the funds to do so. M suggested that be the use of grant funds. They got the grant put together and through one of our Board members got the necessary Ghana based club to do the grant. 

M has subsequently done everything necessary to set up our facilities to house the new participants, organized the training, and is managing the training. If that were all, it alone would be validation when one considers how little M knew when she became our first program participant. But it is the back story of why the club approached M in the first place that is the real validation.

When I asked the clubs founding Presidents why they wanted to do the grant with Theodora they said,

"We have watched M and your other participants (who do volunteer work for the club). We watched her transform from an insecure girl escaping exploitation, to a confident young woman who is a major contributor to our Club and Board. If we are an organization that aims to prevent trafficking, we need to support organizations like Theodora that prove they can transform people and give them opportunities."

Further validation has come from the involvement of the Ghana Rotary Club. This is a club I met the very first trip I made to Ghana in 2019. My two strongest local Board members are from this club. But I've never been able to get the club as a whole pay any attention to Theodora. Their having been brought into this grant as completely changed that. They want to conduct a PR campaign promoting what Theodora is doing. They have asked to visit our operation when I'm in Ghana to learn more about the project. 

Now there is still a lot, A LOT we need to do to get Theodora truly sustainable. But that hill is a lot lower and manageable than it was even 9 months ago. 

Next post - the EDI today update

All's Well That Ends Well

Despite all the intensity, illness, fatigue, angst, and questioning of this trip, it has all ended up on a very high note. 

I personally was incredibly productive cranking out fundraising campaigns, business development campaigns, and content for both. I've worked with my local board and had multiple meetings with them and my new local manager. I sat in the office today and listened as she effortlessly handled a new business prospect and closed same. I saw a level of quiet intense work in the office each day. I enjoyed the tranquility of our new office that is so quiet compared to our prior one. I'm feeling good about the transition that is taking place. As I stated in the last post, I'm not sure where I will be in all this but I'm sure it will be 'the right place.

On A Different Note

 I saw this image on one of my people's computers

This is my inner cat

And a special Ghanaian 

SIGNS OF THE WORLD

I love a sign that leaves little doubt as to the message.

 

Transition 8.5.4. 2025 (Ghana)

Back in July of 2024, I wrote a post related to transition. In that post, I expressed a realization that while I constantly looked for definitive 'transition points' in my life development, what was really happening was a never ending of transitions. (Having been watching things related to physics lately, I think of this like the electron which is in multiple points of time/space at the same time.)

Thus we have come to yet another of these points, this one dealing with the Theodora Project in Ghana. I gave my update in July where I went through our crisis of the first half of 2025 and how via local engagement, we overcame it. This was my first time back to actually see and feel what that meant. 

It has been both deeply encouraging and stressful at the same time.

If you have raised children to their becoming adult, you are aware of this experience. You want them to become independent. But as they start doing that, they start pushing you away. You are happy and encouraged that they are finding their independent way. Yet you are hurt that you are no longer that central part of their life. It opens a hole in your heart. And that hurts. A lot of what has been going on during this trip fits into this category. That's the stressful part.

Encouraging, however, is the incredibly increased engagement by the Ghana Board of Directors. For years, they have been mostly window dressing. As mentioned in the crisis post, they came to the rescue in the time of need. Now they are providing the level of engagement that the participant manager is going to need to go forward. 

And I am left with wondering how this will all play out for me. As I mentioned in my earlier posts, I've made huge progress building out our fundraising program and part of our business development program as well. There are still things I need to do to train a business development person. And I still have the strategic vision that is needed. But for the first time in six-years, I am leaving Ghana without a clear idea of if I will be returning. It will be interesting to see how things play out. 

Exhaustion

I spent about 4 hours yesterday just lying on a couch. Literally. Just lying there. Not sleeping. Just lying and not wanting to move. 

There has been and is a lot to get done this trip. It is crucial to Theodora that I extricate myself from management in order that it become self-sufficient. But to do that, especially with very limited people resources available on site, actually means more work in the sort term. 

Day-to-day management has been completely taken over. That's a big plus. Passing on the more strategic tasks are going to be harder. The two big things on the list are mapping out our first ever significant fundraising campaign (I will do a detailed post on that shortly), and putting into place a replicable business development system not requiring me. The first has the most time urgency as the end of the year is the big fundraising period. The later is inhibited by a chicken and egg situation...namely we need a local person to train and all local people are needed to do billable work. 

In order to accomplish these, I have been working extensively to create the systems, processes, and content to hand over to the team. This has meant going into our office and basically working 7 to 8 hours straight at a desk. That doesn't sound like that much does it. But, in reality, I haven't worked that way in, I don't know, ever! My work days when I do work are more about having all kinds of meetings, being able to get out, move around, etc. I tend to work in smaller spurts. 

Last night and yesterday I was hit with some kind of mild lower intestinal disorder, no doubt something I ate. I didn't get a good night's sleep. That combined with the amount of working, seemed to push me over the edge to where my body said, "de-I YOU are going to rest." Of course I said, "Body, I have a lot to do. I don't have time for this." It said, "You don't understand. YOU ARE GOING TO REST." and with that it was on the couch.

I got a good night's sleep. My innards seem to have settled down. It is Saturday and I am not going to do any kind of work.

AI Working With AI (Ancient Intelligence Working With Artificial Intelligence)

I had a lot of work, A LOT of work to get done coming to Ghana. Big projects related to fundraising and business development requiring detailed process development and content creation. It is hard to do these kinds of work when I'm home because my days often have meetings (physical and virtual) and I (at least) need uninterrupted blocks of time to do massive process and content work. I have been looking forward having numerous days relatively free from interruptions to do this work here in Ghana.

What I did not expect was a massive leap into the use of AI to assist me. 

Over the last month, I have been dabbling. I had used it mostly to edit and reformat written content and for some research. I had not used it to map out an entire campaign. But on the flight out, I had layovers and I tried for the first time to put into AI (I am just using ChatGPT at this point) a request for developing an entire campaign. That led into developing ideal target definitions. This led into the creation of separate documents to be used in the campaign.

There were things I wanted done by my team that were going to stretch their capabilities. I was able to generate instructions and scripts that took into account the strengths and frailties of my people. 

I am learning how to iterate. By that I mean, give the AI a set of instructions, edit the response, and ask the tool for what additional instructions would assist making the work output more in line with my desire.

I know I am just taking baby steps. I have not succeeded in creating any fully formed, formatted end products. I am giving things to my team to for them to do final formatting. I find when I ask Chat to create an original document, my prompts (instructions) don't seem to be clear enough and it comes out not very close to what I desire. On the other hand, when I give it content I've written and ask it to make it more impactful, or more emotional, or more concise, I get much better results. 

On the whole however, I have gotten WAY MORE done over the couple of days I've been here than I would have thought. So I'm looking forward to see what else I can learn about using this tool.

Transit, Arrival, Settling In, Difficulties Of Inter-Cultural Networking

Truly by Magical Unicorn Pony God of Travel standards it wasn't all that bad. Going to Ghana I flew from Albuquerque to Denver to Washington, D.C. and then on to Accra, Ghana. I knew the last flight was going to be late because I got a notification. Unfortunately, even with the late notification, the flight was even later so we all stood there waiting to board for an hour beyond the announced time. 

For those affectionados of business class flying, there is quite a wide range of quality between airlines food offerings. United made a big Hoo Ha when it unveiled its special Polaris cabin, seats, and lounges. Initially the food quality took a big jump up. But lately it has become decidedly 'Meh'. In particular, there seems to be a ban on salt. Everything is very bland. And the salt shakers on the individual trays don't seem actually put out any salt. Then there is breakfast. Breakfasts on flights, even business class, tend to be very 'meh' as well. This flight took that to a new level of insipidness with the introduction of the Egg White Bite, little like blobs of tasteless egg whites. Why the airline has decided that we need to be conscious of our egg yolk intake is beyond me.

As we took off late, we of course arrived late. This meant that instead of us being the only flight arriving, that there were four other large international flight arrivals so the small Accra airport was packed. However, as the experienced traveler I am, I got off the plane right away, bounded to the health and passport check-in, got the shortest line and was through in about 15 minutes. Amazing...

....only to wait over an hour for my bags to finally show up. 

I was picked up by my people. It was so late we went out to get something to eat. I had some stir-fried noodles that were mercifully full of flavor. 

The weekend was mostly about shopping for food and doing food prep for the week. On my agenda this trip is making rounds to various Rotary Clubs to increase the visibility of Theodora and Rotary Club to End Human Trafficking. It has been awhile since I did this and I had forgotten some of the cultural differences. 

In the U.S., people like to talk about themselves. In a networking environment, it is not hard to get a conversation going. In Ghana, nobody trusts anybody, so they give out as little information as possible. This leads to your white American asking a bunch of questions and getting one word answers in response. The better technique is to just wait until the meeting is over and you've given your promotional blur. Then those who are interested come over to you.

On Friday, we did have a virtual meeting on the grant where the Muslim Family Counseling Representative put his actual signature on the application, making it official. We're hoping we have everything we need to submit it today, Monday.

Off To Ghana Again

I sort of dodged a bullet as United Airlines (whom I'm flying this time) had system wide IT related stoppage yesterday. All seems on time today.

It is going to be an interesting trip given recent events. I've been working hard preparing for the trip as we want to greatly improve our fundraising effort this year and start building a true, sustainable business development system not dependent on me.

And we are in the last phases of getting a grant from Rotary International for recruiting and training AND we have a commitment from the Muslim Family Counseling Service in Ghana to be our partner. I will write more about this as I think it is pretty big deal for us. 

Have to rush to my first flight. More to come.

Theodora Update July 2025

We all know the catchy phrases:

If it were easy, everyone would do it.

No pain, no gain. 

I would offer that it the actual experience of driving for success can be a bit wearying. 

Since the February trip, things have been a bit rough. We went through another phase of client loss which led to finances being very tight. And my attempt to bring 'open book management' and more participation in responsibility for the business did not work.

Without going into too much gory detail, it was a very nice 'developed country' idea that ran onto the rocks of the reality of a very different culture, lack of strong local leadership, and a base of people who come from a traumatized background. I honestly thought we might implode. 

But things happen for a reason. 

My number one local director, a very experienced and strong business person who has both International and local Ghana experience, a person who has been key to our being legal in Ghana, stepped in and took charge. In his words, 'We tried doing things the American way. Now we are going to do things the Ghana way.' He has appointed one of the women to be the day-to-day manager and is providing mentorship to her. I have a couple of things I need to be doing.

• Training someone to be business development
• Get our fundraising organized and more consistent

Things have stabilized. We are adding clients again.

This was not a particularly 'fun' thing to go through (an understatement). But seeing a strong local presence say, "We cannot let this die" is an important breakthrough. It is not just a 'white guy's' project/vision anymore. Now we have local people who are truly bought in as proven by their actions. 

That's a pretty big breakthrough.

Theodora/Ghana Trip Round-Up

I'm back in Albuquerque, back in the day-to-day saddle, and reflecting on the trip just completed to Ghana. A LOT was accomplished. 

• We kicked off open book management and got great involvement from the team as I related in my earlier post.
• We met with our Ghana board and advisors and believe we have renewed engagement from them.
• Met with two potential joint venture partners and have agreed to put together a test (more on this below).
• Purchased four badly needed new computers for the team.
• Put 'teeth' into the idea of 'participant management' with a set of definitive projects the team is to work on (more on this below).

JOINT VENTURES

During the last half of 2024, I met and had ongoing conversations with two other social impact organizations in Ghana dealing with the same problems related to disadvantaged & trafficked women. One, Muslim Family Counseling Services (MFCS), has an excellent track record meeting people 'where they are', and gaining trust. The other, Breaking The Chain Through Education (BTCTE), specializes in getting trafficking survivors and giving them education and skills training so they can build a better life. Both these organizations face the same challenge...they've been unable to come up with the means to provide solid employment for those they serve. Thus, when they learned about Theodora, they were both very intrigued.

This led to the local heads of both organizations coming to our office in Accra to see for themselves what has been accomplished. They met with our team, learned about their backgrounds, the challenges of transforming into those that could do our work, details of the actual work being done, and their feelings about their own future and the future of Theodora. Both commented on the magnitude that had been accomplished. And both have indicated they would like to see what we might do collaboratively. 

If we were to develop a collaborative effort, these organizations would fill two big gaps in Theodora's potential growth plan...the recruitment of new candidates (MFCS), and providing the basic training fir new participants (BTCTE). We've agreed that an initial concept test would be the next step. We are hoping to have the design of this test for our respective Boards by this summer.

OWNERSHIP ATTITUDE CHALLENGE

There is a saying, be careful of what you ask for, you might get it. In the case of my Theodora participants, I would rephrase that to, be careful of what you question your CEO's decisions, you might get the task to resolve it. Thus on my last day in Ghana, I handed out the following to the team.

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT PLAN (Mary F) – This has been mostly built out. Mary needs to move it into implementation and provide a results tracking system.

 

FUNDRAISING (Ann & Mary M.) – You have your system built. I need you to BLAST OUT the new content and talking points I’ve given you.

 

AI STRATEGY & TACTICS (Miriam w/Mary M & Benedicta) – We want something we can be implementing by the second half of the year.

 

OPEN BOOK MANAGEMENT (All) – Start ‘really’ studying the financial information. Ask questions!

 

TIME WORKING IN VS. OUT OF OFFICE POLICY (Open) – I’d like to see something by the end of February.

 

CLIENT’S PAYING VA BONUS POLICY (Open) – We should have something approved and out to our clients by the end of February.

 

PAYROLL, COMPANYWIDE SYSTEM  (Open) – This will be a hard one. I’d like to see some preliminary ideas no later than the end of April.

 

ROTARY FOLLOW-UP (Benedicta) – We need to be going to at least one meeting per month & make sure all are comfortable with and can use the talking points. We need to start collecting names of contacts we make at these meetings.

 

PUBLIC RELATIONS CAMPAIGN (Miriam) – Establish list of PR contacts by the end of February. Begin sending press releases by March.

This should keep everyone engaged for a while!

Putting On The Ownership Attitude Jacket

Here in Ghana, we are continuing the process started last summer of building Theodora Ghana Virtual Assistants' ability to be an independent business...which primarily means focusing on the ability of the women in the program to manage their business. Viewed objectively, this is a massive undertaking. Viewed in context of what we've already overcome, it is no more massive than the entire project as a whole.

One of our promises to the people in the team was that Theodora would become an employee owned company. We are hoping to have our Employee Ownership Trust in place by the end of February. With that in mind, going back to the summer, I have been talking to the women about what an owner does. We've talked about the tradeoffs an owner is constantly making particularly when it comes to money. One of our people, Ann, back then coined a phrase as she was discussing why she'd made a client decision.

"I put on my Ownership Attitude Jacket!"

I warned the team prior to this visit that we were going to take 'Wearing the Ownership Attitude Jacket" to another level because I was going to institute 'open book management'

Open Book Management is a philosophy that encourages ownership and leadership to share financial information with those being managed. It goes counter to common practice in business where most owner/managers feel they don't want their employees to see what is going on in the business, in particular, how much they make. 

I'd given them the information before I arrived. And we went over it when I got here. Of course, it is not that easy to dig into numbers when you're totally unfamiliar with financial reporting. Nonetheless, the women did pick out a couple meaningful things that led to substantive discussion. Compensation was one which led to me giving them the task of developing a compensation program for the company going forward. (Good luck with that team. LOL. For as long as I've been in business, I've never met a business that was happy with their compensation system!)

Another very interesting example had to do with our hours at work. We struggle because of the need to be responsive to clients in time zones far different, offset by the advantages of having our people in an office to stimulate collaboration, work ethic, and culture. My two managers felt we'd gone too far in the direction of being a 9 to 5 culture which didn't work with the level of service we need to give to our clients. Discussing this as a team, they came to the conclusion that we needed to establish a set of rules that balanced the two requirements.

This led to a last conversation. One of my managers and I knew we had a very long day running around getting new computers and looking at potential new offices. My manager wanted to leave early, there not being anything going on at the office requiring our interaction. I was concerned about the image this presents. In the spirit of our collaborative management approach, I told the manager that we'd bring it up to the team. (This is an easy thing to do since we are small and they all sit in the same room).

I brought up my concern about how a leader should set the tone by example. And if I was leaving the office early, what message did that send to them. One of my people, Mary M, said the following.

"Michael, if I have work I need to get done, I stay late. If I have an early client meeting, I come in early. If I'm done with my work and it is early, I go home. I trust all my teammates. I know they are doing the same. It makes no difference to me if manager M goes home early or comes in late because I know she is doing tons necessary for us to succeed. I know you are committed to us. I don't need to see you in the office to know that."

I didn't breakdown and cry though I felt like it because hearing something like that you KNOW they are owning the Ownership Attitude Jacket.

Musings On Social Impact Start-Ups In Cultures Very Different Than Your Own

Two Posts ago, I went on a tangent and began musing on perceived prospects of the Rotary Club to End Human Trafficking, Economic Development Initiative versus the Theodora Project. I made the statement.

"This isn't because I think the concept is bad, unworkable, or have the potential to make it. The problem is I don't have the time and the energy to make the start-up work."

Daughter #3, who has spent much of her recent career in the business start-up space, commented on her observations related to the massive amounts of time and energy that start-ups take, She further related that in the past she never questioned the costs that extracts on other parts of your life, but now she does. And she asked me to go into more depth with my related to my statement related to EDI. So here goes.

I would start by observing that not all start-ups are equal. For example, the start-ups that #3 has mostly been involved with - technology based, aggressively funded, with massive expectations for success are a special kind of artificial pressure cooker that can totally consume and grind down people. On the other hand, the kinds of small business start-ups that I have dealt with over my career, that often relate to the livelihood of those involved, have a different kind of pressure. Most that pressure is self-generated and relates to the need for the business to succeed in order for the founders to avoid financial disaster!

All start-ups take a lot of time and energy. I have always equated it to the laws of physics. If we think of Newton's First Law of Motion (special shout for extra credit from R in Madrid for using a physics reference), an object at rest will stay at rest unless acted on by an external force. Think of the start-up business as an object at rest. It has no customers. It is not producing a product or service. There is no cash flow. The external forces that start to change this are the time and energy of the entrepreneur / founder (or plural as the case may be) and capital. In the tech rapid growth world, much more capital is used to hire lots of bodies to do things. In the small business, it is the entrepreneur / founder who applies energy and time in lieu of capital to do things. 

In both cases, there will be a steep learning curve. No matter what one has thought the model will be or the prior experience one has, there will be lots of changes and adjustments along the way until a dependable model is moving along and the amount of energy, time and money can be backed off. In the small business start-up that almost always takes about 5 years.

Now look at the kind of social impact models with which I've been working. These have all the characteristics of the small business start-up but with the added complexity of simultaneously requiring complete culture attitude change. This takes the challenge to a substantially higher level. 

As I have slogged through all the learning necessary to get Theodora to a level of sustainability, I have begun to realize why most attempts to build new sustainable business models in less developed worlds fail...people simply are not willing to put in the massive amounts of time that are necessary to change the inertia of the existing cultural models. In my personal case if I had not been so 

a) determined, 

b) obsessed, 

c) crazy, 

d) stubborn, 

e) a & c, 

f) b & d, 

g) all of the above, 

I certainly would not have gotten us to where we are today.

Hence my comments related to EDI. It is a different model. The nature of the cultural challenges and change that must be overcome are different. I can see the energy and time that will be required. And I don't have it. And even if I did, I doubt I'd be willing to make that kind of commitment again. I will try to do somethings that involve more people to see if I can get at least a prototype started. But I would have to say overall, I'm not optimistic this one is going to happen.

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Rotary Event

A week before I was to head out to Ghana, one of my fellow Board Members of the Rotary Club to End Human Trafficking, E, sent an email out to me and the ladies of Theodora who are in our club. E's brother, Mark, a prior President of Rotary International, and now a Trustee of the Rotary Foundation was doing a tour of Africa. He was stopping in Ghana. They would be giving him a gala dinner just two days after I arrived. Our club President asked if any of our people would be willing to go as it would be great if our little Ghana contingent could be seen at such an event.

Much to my surprise, virtually our entire team with the exception of the one who is a recent mother decided to go. 

I had my own thoughts as to what would happen and I tried hard to tamp down expectations. There would over a hundred people. All would be clamoring for attention from such an important personage. Since 'E' was speaking to her Brother and Sister-in-law, I was sure we'd get a small shout out. Mainly, I wanted to show the women how one works a room such as this as none has had any kind of experience such as this.

Despite all my years coming to Ghana and experiencing "Ghana-Mahn-Time" which is like "Manana" on steroids, I cannot shake my American punctuality upbringing. So we arrived when the event was supposed to start. First thing we encountered was a classic case of Ghanaian petty power. In a very hierarchical society where those with more lord over you, many with any authority have a tendency to lord it over those they can.

At the reception desk, they didn't have a name for our reservation. We had a copy of our payment receipt but no, the person in charge said if there was no name on the list we couldn't get in. We had to go over to the side and wait until we could contact the person who'd purchased the tickets for us. I was close to pulling an 'African World Airways Meltdown' but I kept it under control and we in due course were allowed in with apologies from one of the staff leaders and glares from the petty tyrant.

Of course no one was there. The room wouldn't fill up until almost 45 minutes after the official start time. We were by ourselves.

 My team cooling our heels waiting for things to happen

I decided some alcohol lubricant would lighten the mood which it did.

 

As more Rotarians arrived, some of the people I know got me into conversations. Then as we got close to the time the unexpected happened. The District Governor, a woman who had met one of woman when she went to a club meeting with my main Ghana partner and benefactor Jonas, came to our table. Past Rotary President and Trustee Mark wanted us...All Of Us...to come to their table. 

So off we went through the room go meet PRP (Past Rotary President) Mark and his Wife Gaye. And they greet us so warmly. And Gaye insists on taking multiple pictures...all while the MC is trying to get the meeting started. 

 

 

 Me hobnobbing with the PRP

 

As we returned to our seats, I saw a couple of our women make eye contact with the lady who'd given us such a hard time and grace her with a some malicious smiles. Our women have spent a lifetime being disrespected so I can't blame them.

Then Mark was called up to do his presentation.He starts talking about how important it is for Rotary to be innovative to get new members. He talks about the move during his term to creating different kinds of clubs. He talks about his Sister's journey, she who had no interest in Rotary at all until the unique Rotary Club to End Human Trafficking came to her attention. Then Mark said,

"And we have members right here in Ghana who are members of that club."

 

And he had us stand up for recognition, the only club so recognized.

 

We were all blown away!

 

Our Rotary event experience.