Paul Bergman

Author: Paul Bergman

  • Rejection Therapy Ask #3

    Rejection Therapy Ask #3

    You can see that, even after 3 attempts, I’m starting to show fatigue. I don’t think that is only because the last few have been rejections. I think that I’m starting to question this approach.
    I clearly have a great cause I’m asking for them to support but I’m still getting answers that are not “yes”. I think this is a result of a couple factors:

    • I’m not sure the direct approach works. I know that a more curated connection gets more traction, just like anything else.
    • I may be asking the wrong people. Managers of restaurants may not have the ability to give out meal gift cards but may be able to do something else (more on this below)
    • I don’t have a clearly compelling story for being in the restaurant that I can tell in 15 seconds. How will this donation translate into kids going to college?

    One thing that Jia Jiang did mention is that in the early stages, he often took ‘no’ as the final word. On this attempt, the manager did mention that he could give t-shirts or hats away but gift cards were done at corporate. I was too quick to accept that and get out when I could have gotten a shirt or hat. The problem is, that’s even harder to convert into money for the kids. And we certainly can’t give a beer t-shirt to a high school student, right? As it is, I’m not even sure we want alcohol manufacturers as official sponsors.

  • Rejection Therapy: Ask #2

    Rejection Therapy: Ask #2

    My second ask This was a much higher bar. I walked in off the street, didn’t know them, and didn’t really know what to say. I got a “no”. Not really a surprise. Problems:

    1) I didn’t seem to be talking to a decision maker.

    2) It seemed she wanted to ‘handle me’ and not bother her boss. Thus she wasn’t very helpful.

    Lessons: Be aware that many front desk people see random asks all the time. I wonder if they will likely not be receptive or helpful.

  • Rejection Therapy: Ask #1

    Rejection Therapy: Ask #1

    My first ask. This ask was not a high bar. Yes, it was out of the blue but it was also to someone I’d known for years. He also knew I was involved in Lamp of Learning. He was already interested, so the ask was easier. It wasn’t, however, easy. Asking is a hard step and I think many people don’t like it. I think this program is, for me, getting over the anxiety of making the ask.

  • Security Question #1 of a Risk Assessment

    Security Question #1 of a Risk Assessment

    Paul Bergman: Security Question #1

    Small businesses need help. Often they don’t have the resources to hire staff in, so what can they do?
    I’m an advocate for small companies, they are the backbone of the US economy and need to exist on the internet. Both how can they play on the cyber-battleground without any tools or resources?

    Having worked with a number of small companies and think it’s important to start with a basic set of questions. The first question has to do with “why security”? If you have an empty shed, you don’t need to put too much effort into locking it up. However, most companies have something worth protecting.

    From customer lists to personal information, intellectual property or protecting their client’s. Almost all companies have something to protect. Security is all about risk and minimizing that risk. We have a number of ways to deal with risk, but we are getting ahead of ourselves. Question #1 is: What do you need to protect?

  • Rejection Therapy 1

    Rejection Therapy 1

    I just finished Jia Jiang’s book “Rejection Proof” about 100 days of rejection as a project. (Link to site in comments) I asked one of my board members about getting donations from local restaurants. He was a manager of a restaurant and told me that he got hundreds of such requests a week. His suggestion is to approach them in person. It’s a lot easier to send a letter! Now I have to go through my own rejection therapy by doing these in person! I’m up for it.

    Rejection Therapy

  • Grant Writing for Non-Profits

    Grant Writing for Non-Profits

    The other day I finished my Grant Writing course at UCSD Extension. It is part of my certificate program on non-profit management. And it was an interesting class. I learned a lot about writing grants but the biggest thing I learned is that no two grants are the same. They are all different. So you may ask, ‘How do you have a class on grant writing?’

    The answer seems to be fairly simple; you answer the questions asked.

    Don’t get me wrong, the class wasn’t just that piece of advice. It was helpful and we each developed a master template based on the Grantsmanship Model with 8 sections:

    1. Summary
    2. Introduction to the non-profit (not the problem or solution)
    3. Explain the problem (not your solution to it)
    4. Explain the outcomes you are striving for (this is your solution goal)
    5. Explain the methods you will use to achieve the outcomes (this is how you plan to achieve the outcomes)
    6. How you will evaluate your success and know if you achieved your goal
    7. How the program will be supported in the future (after the grant money is gone)
    8. Budget (How you will spend the grant money)

    When you have developed the template above, you can use that template to help you apply for the grants you are seeking. Grants seem to come in many flavors and foundations all seem to like communicating in their own way. Pay attention to the way they want to see things and dont try to force them to accept your format.

    In the end, understand that the people reviewing your application are just people. Make your application easy to understand so they don’t have to search for the answers they need. Also, reach out to the foundations with questions, that often will help you in the application process.

    Lastly, many grants require a LOI. Whether they call is a ‘Letter of Intent’, ‘Letter of Interest’, or ‘Letter of Inquiry’, it’s all the same. It’s a short brief of your proposal and usually serves to pre-qualify proposals. It’s a 2-3 page version of your proposal but should contain the items above. If you nail the LOI, it’s possible you may not even need to submit the whole proposal, so pay attention to it. At the very least, put your best work into it since that’s the thing that will open the door.

    The class used Norton Kiritz’s book, “Grantsmanship: Program Planning & Proposal Writing” published by the Grantsmanship Center.

  • Lamp of Learning: FY21 ends UP!

    Lamp of Learning: FY21 ends UP!

    It’s been a great year!

    It wasn’t an easy year, but it all turned out great in the end.

    We just held our annual award ceremony where we present our seniors with their scholarships, and it went amazingly well! What a great program the board developed this year! I’ve received many compliments on how the program has evolved over the years and I’m lucky to have such a great board to help me pull all this off!

    Like most companies, non-profits need to raise funds. Companies use products and services, we use donations. I’m happy to report that Lamp of Learning was successful ended the fiscal year 27% over budget for the year! This has indeed been a great year for Lamp of Learning and our amazing students!

    I look forward to FY22 being even better! I have a lot planned for the upcoming 12 months!

    I would also like to mention the amazing support we have gotten from the University Club atop Symphony Towers. The new staff and management have been exceptionally supportive. I owe a lot of this success to their help!

  • Certificate in Private Company Governance

    Certificate in Private Company Governance

    Hello all,

    Today I completed my training and passed the exam for my Certificate in Private Company Governance from the Private Directors Association. PDA is a membership association for board members of private organizations. They offer both job postings and training to their membership. I’ve been a member since January of 2021 and am a member of their cybersecurity committee. As a member of that committee, I’ve led the development and management of four very successful webinars in the last year.

    As a board member I’ve always been committed to developing a and understanding my role at a private company. This may seem like an easy task, but many private companies are owned by a very small number of people. Sometimes when those people are directly on the board, it’s difficult to know exactly where you fit in. Take, for instance, a board I was on where there was just one owner and he was CEO of the company. It is difficult to ‘represent the best interests of the shareholders’ when they are already sitting at the table! Where do you fit in?

    The fact is, you need to walk a fine line in those cases. They clearly have their own interests in mind but aren’t always experts in everything (although some think so). You do bring a different skillset to the table and certainly a different point of view. Remember, you are there for a reason.

    Fortunately, not all company boards are so skewed. Most companies that are large enough to start considering creation of a board of directors have a large ownership base as well. One family-owned business that I worked with had only a few family members running the company. In those cases, it’s much more clear that you represent the interests of those that aren’t there.

    Keep in mind also that shareholder interest isn’t always the only interest you need to keep in mind. Courts are starting to expand that to include all stakeholders such as employees. Not to mention with new privacy laws doing into effect around the world, the interests of customers should certainly be a discussion in the boardroom to address risks that could be extremely costly to a company.

  • Certified Chief Information Security Officer

    Certified Chief Information Security Officer

    The cybersecurity world is full of certifications.

    The fact is, it’s an easy way to validate a skill set without doing a deep-dive interview with a candidate. Most certifications require classroom and fairly lengthy exams covering a large body of knowledge. In my case, the CCISO certification is my most recent validation of my skillset.

    The CCISO exam is offered by EC Counsil, the folks that did the highly popular CEH certification. Similar in scope to CISSP certification, the CCISO covers 5 domains of knowledge:

    1. Governance, Risk, and Compliance
    2. Information Security Controls and Audit Management
    3. Security Program Management and Operations
    4. Information Security Core Competencies
    5. Strategic Planning, Finance, Procurement, and Third-Party Management

    As you can see, this is a management level program. There isn’t a focus on certain tactics or procedures because those don’t belong at the management level in the same way the next CEO of Amazon need not have experience as a delivery driver.

    I’ll admit that the exam itself was difficult, and some questions are arguably awkward, but does a good job testing against the body of knowledge. It is a great indicator of awareness and understanding of corporate risk and security. Particularly when paired with other certifications, I feel that these certifications go a long way toward validating education and awareness of issues. That is the challenge that corporations need at the C-level and boardroom.

  • New Website Launched

    New Website Launched

    Hello world!

    I’m taking a page from a few respected friends that are outside board members for a few private companies. One thing they do well is self-promotion. While I originally rejected that idea as too self-absorbed, I’ve since realized that I AM my product and if you don’t market your product, no one will know it exists. So why shouldn’t I create a highlight reel?

    I realize that with the power of social media, web pages and blog sites may be a bit dated. However, fighting for space on a person’s feed is a challenge and often out of my control. I’ve worked on posts that never really saw the light of day on LinkedIn and were immediately pushed in obscurity by the AI systems that run the whole thing.

    That’s not to say I’m blind to the power of social media! Far from it. As a hacker at heart, I’ll be working on ways to combine the two efforts and get posts here to be referenced on social media.

    I’ll also have at least a little more control of the site itself. I’m looking forward to tinkering with data driven widgets on this platform to make it do cool things. Here’s to having some fun with this!

    Best,

    Paul