Tables are Turned! Grant Writing Unicorn Interviews Meredith

Karisa Coe, member of The Grant Writing Unicorn Collective, conducts an informational interview with Meredith. The timing is divine as The Collective is in the midst of an informational interview challenge. Karisa is a recent college graduate from Texas A&M University who is working towards becoming a freelance grant writing consultant. She reached out to Meredith for an informational interview to learn more about the why and how behind entrepreneurship.

Curious how you could get into grant writing and build a career in it? Here is a free training on how to do that without volunteering or having prior experience: https://www.learngrantwriting.org/webinar-videos/discover-grant-writing

Meredith is known for saying, “My forte is turning ideas into reality”. How does she not get overloaded and lost? In the ideation phase of anything, Meredith recommends not limiting yourself to thinking within boundaries and not thinking too technically about cost and timeline. Creating an environment for creative brainstorming is key. Then, ask: “Who am I serving?” Project management comes into play here to break your vision down into actionable steps.

Alex is an integrator while Meredith is a visionary and they feel that there is an opportunity for people that identify strongly with operations and project management to become integrators. Meredith and Alex are in the process of examining whether integrators can be trained up from scratch or not. They’re conducting several informational interviews with female CEOs.

For Meredith and Learn Grant Writing, the values of the business are the values of herself. These values include taking responsibility, leadership, and working hard, but recognizing that today is all we have. Since Alex has become part of the business, celebrating wins has replaced working hard. Values are what you fall back on when you’re reflecting on how to handle a situation. A question can be used as a decision making framework and then the values help nudge that to the finish line.

For those just starting a career, Meredith strongly suggests doing informational interviews. These interviews provide insights, little bits of wisdom, and connection. Informational interviews allow you to authentically and genuinely build your network with people you want in it.

Several qualities are helpful to become a successful entrepreneur. These include problem-solving, failing fast, having a growth mindset, and staying focused.

With Karisa’s final question, Meredith reveals her dream of owning a property in Spokane, Washington. Two books that have been helpful for her in developing and sharing her ideas are “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill and “The Mom Test” by Rob Fitzpatrick.

Resources referenced:

• Meyers Briggs Type Indicator
• “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill
• “The Mom Test: How to Talk to Customers and Learn If Your Business is a Good Idea when Everyone is Lying to You” by Rob Fitzpatrick

Like audiobooks and podcasts? Listen to Meredith’s book, “How to Write a Grant: Become a Grant Writing Unicorn” for free here: https://www.learngrantwriting.org/free-audiobook

Timestamps:

00:00 Karisa Coe Interview

00:28 Intro

01:25 Meet Karisa

02:00 How to pay a grant writer?

04:06 How do you not get lost and overloaded when turning ideas into reality?

07:54 What are some of the questions you’re planning to ask other women CEOs?

09:00 Meyers Briggs Type Inventory: are there massive trends with grant writers?

11:20 How do your personal core values influence your business values?

15:30 What advice would you give to a recent college graduate just starting their career?

18:11 What’s the most important quality you look for in someone who wants to be an entrepreneur?

21:00 What’s the third ball you want to kick?

EPISODE CREDITS:

Hosted by: Meredith Noble & Alex Lustig

Guest host: Haleigh Jinkins

Audio Edit by: Ana Castro

Connect with Us:

• Website: [senworks.org]
• Instagram: [@learngrantwriting]
• Facebook: [Learn Grant Writing]