Hugh Ballou
the recording for the podcast. I need to set up one respectable. Okay, there we go. Hello, folks. This is today’s episode of the Nonprofit Exchange. We have a special guest today. As usual, you can find this episode and all the others at The Nonprofit Exchange, T-H-E, nonprofitexchange.org. You can find this wonderful interview, you’ll find the transcript of everything that happened, and you’ll find links to the presenter’s website for today. So this one is unlike the 610 I’ve done previously, so you want to sit down, take notes, and please feel free to share this recording with anybody in your circle because good news deserves to be shared. So we’re prepping to go live and we’re going to go live here in a second. So hang loose. Welcome to the nonprofit exchange. This is Hugh Ballou I’m happy that you’re here today, and I’m going to introduce Terry Mudica, who’s the co-founder. She’s my guest today. She’s also the co-founder and executive leader of Good News Ministries. It’s a global organization focused on digital content creation, resource development, and mission-driven outreach. Terry highlights her leadership in translating the vision into a structured, sustainable organization, which is unique. Not everybody can do that. So let’s set the conversation up, Terry. I want to ask you some questions, and then you’ve been very successful at this, but what started this? What was the original vision behind Good News Ministry? And welcome to the show.

Terry Modica
Thank you. Thanks for having me. Good News Ministries was founded 30 years ago, almost now, it’s almost 31, which was 1995. But the vision for it started before. Usually we have a growing vision that needs to get translated into something reality, that makes a difference out in the world. And for me, it began when I was hired by my church to be the adult education coordinator, and I was putting on workshops and. bringing in speakers and I’d sit there listening to the speaker and watching the people who had come to listen to them and seeing their eyes light up, the light bulbs going on above the head. And I’m like, this is wonderful. This is making a difference in people’s lives. Then my husband and I went to a week long workshop called the School of Evangelization. It, it just, it changed our lives. And as I watched the people growing, you know, as again, sitting back, listening to the speakers and listen and watching how this is affecting the audience. I was like, wow, these speakers and the topics they’re covering are making a bigger difference than I’ve been doing. And I want to be part of this. And it was called the Good New School of Evangelization. So my husband and I took turns, we had kids at home, so we took turns going back there to experience it again and learn from how they did that. And we wanted to help put it on in our own church, and it began to develop there. But at the same time that that was under development, strange things start happening in the sense of my husband and myself feeling pulled to move away. We were in New Jersey at the time, and Florida kept calling us. I won’t go into all the details about how it kept calling us, but we didn’t have to go, but it was so, it just became overwhelming that this was where God wanted us to go. This is where our calling was pulling us, and we didn’t understand why. So we ended up though, following that, we explored the idea of moving to Florida, found some place that we, you know, yes, we’d like to live here. And it’s, we’re near Tampa and, you know, we love the weather and everything. And so we decide, okay, we’re going to take the risk. We’re going to give up what we were starting and in New Jersey, and we’re going to just move down to Florida and see what happens. One month after we arrived in Florida, the guy who founded the Good News School of Evangelization that we had attended, his name was Charlie Osborne, he just happened, quote unquote, to be visiting the place where we had moved to to give a seminar. And so we decided that even though we’d heard him a whole bunch of times and knew what he was going to be saying, we decided to go and and be part of that, you know, to, to listen to him during that seminar. And afterwards, as we were shaking his hand, greeting him, we, he said to us, you see that lady over there. She’s been to my school and wants it to start here and see that. And she’s been praying for that and see that lady over there. She’s been doing the same thing. And that man over there and that man and that priest. And he’s been saying, if you can get it started here, I want it in my parish. And the people were saying, we’re not leaders, we don’t know how to get it started. So they were praying that God would send in the right leaders. And so basically what Charlie did at that moment was to point out a whole core team ready to join us in starting in Florida, what we had started to start up in New Jersey. And that’s how Good News Ministries of Tampa Bay was born.

Hugh Ballou
So you stepped up to that calling.

Terry Modica
Yes, we took the risk. We were going into it kind of blindly. We did a lot of research ahead of time. We didn’t go totally blindly, but we didn’t feel right to give up what we were starting in New Jersey. But everything else felt right. So we took the risk. You know, to be an entrepreneur at anything, you have to be a risk taker.

Hugh Ballou
Amen. So that’s really important. And so there’s people out there, there’s some people that are experienced, they’ve been in the trenches, but you know, it’s never too late to learn something new. But there’s also people, I’ve attended motivational speeches by famous people like Jim Rohn. And he said to the group, you know, here’s an idea. There’s a hundred people here. Only three people will actually do something about it. So give yourself credit. You stepped up and did something about it. So talk about, you know, you had this vision, you had this idea. The transition to make, I want to ask you a lot of questions, so we’ll pace them as we go. So your transition to make, a lot of people have ideas. So you made it happen. Talk about, you know, how did you bring that vision to reality? And was it a smooth road or did you have challenges and how did you overcome those?

Terry Modica
Yeah, we had challenges right from the beginning of the first week long. So we were taking Charlie Osborne’s model and adapting it to our own personalities, our own style. And that was integral. But there were some people that were helping us out from Charlie’s school who wanted to do things the old way. And they started taking over right at the beginning. So that was our first challenge. And we just had to bear with it till we got through the school and said, OK, they’re not coming back. We’re not inviting them back. And we just had to make some hard decisions And we had to believe in what we were doing to say, again, another risk. We don’t need these people to help us. We can do this on our own.

Hugh Ballou
Yeah, having the wrong people is worse than not having people. And a lot of folks, especially in ministry work, don’t want to hurt people’s feelings. And even in the corporate leaders, multinational corporations, they don’t want to hurt people’s feelings. But really, you have to speak the truth in love, as Paul encourages. And you mentioned it earlier. We’re entrepreneurs. We’re social entrepreneurs. We’re faith entrepreneurs. We’re running a business. It’s a non-profit, but it’s a tax-exempt business. So we have all the rules of business, plus the rules of the non-profit, plus all the guidelines. and we’re dealing with mostly volunteers. So you and I talked a little bit starting out about your culture before we went live here. So I served a 12,000 member church in Atlanta, Georgia, and we’d have hundreds of visitors on a Sunday morning. Every single person got a phone call before sunset, and the preacher didn’t do any of it. They have a team that just love doing that. So you talked about your standards, your principles of how you shape this culture. Those are really high functioning principles. Talk about those a little bit, please.

Terry Modica
I always decided what principles to prioritize by recalling my own experiences when, you know, what frustrated me about, okay, so I wrote to this organization and they ignored me. I listened to this speaker and he was boring and, you know, and I always, I’ve always asked myself, how could I do it better? And not that I’m better than everybody, but it’s a, it’s a learning experience to, to analyze everything that we, that we see, you know, everything that we hear and what, how other models are working, where they’re not working. And, and, and one of the things that was always my pet peeve was when I tried to reach out to make a connection with, maybe it was for partnership in something, maybe it was to ask them a question, uh, based on what they were, you know, what they provided to the people. And most often I did not get any response, not even an automatic letter saying that we’ll get in touch with you. Just hang in there. And. So one of my top priorities has always been, and I trained my staff on it, and they all abide by it. They all are as enthusiastic and passionate about this as I am, is to, if somebody emails us or calls us, well, usually the call is pretty immediate, but we actually have an answering service that we filter things through. when we’re contacted by somebody that we’re trying to serve, they’ve reached us through, they’ve found us through our online services. And our, our principle is treat them as if, treat them the way you want to be treated, you know, the golden rule sort of it, but it’s like, treat them as if we’re faith-based ministry. So our, our mantra is treat them as if it’s Jesus coming to you. You don’t ignore Jesus. If he sends you an email, you’re going to respond right away. And treat the way you respond to them as if you are Jesus and they are hungry for this. And it’s certainly there are people who are crackpots or not really wanting the help that they’re asking for. And so we have a rule, we don’t answer every single thing, but the first email, maybe the second email they send us, we will respond to within 24 hours. And usually the founder and leader of this ministry, I take that upon myself, you know, and I always, do whatever I have my staff do, whatever I delegate to them, or a volunteer, you know, I do it first, I fine tune it. And then I teach them how to do it. And this is how the culture is built for everybody who’s on the team to carry the same passions as I do. And we’re all on the same page. And Where, you know, I haven’t always had the right team members and they haven’t lasted as a result, but it, it fortifies our mission because we are all as a team sharing this together. And I don’t ask. to do something that I’m not willing to do myself. And I think it’s so important that reach out, that connection we make with people, because we’re here to serve people. We’re here to provide resources that will uplift them, change their lives, and ultimately help make the world a better place. And if this is my vision, then I’ve got to be the first person who answers the emails, They’re emails that have to do with, hey, I’m having trouble with this subscription or whatever. That goes to my assistant. But if it’s more personal, I’m the one who responds. And yes, I’ve been very busy over the past 30 years. And yes, I’ve worn many hats, but I’m trying to connect with the people that I want to be loyal to Good News Ministries. And that’s foundational because we rely on those people too for donor support, because we give everything away free and we’re 100% donor funded.

Hugh Ballou
Love it. Love it. Love it. So I want to highlight a leadership principle here. You do it first, but then you learn to delegate it because we have too many leaders get burned out because they misuse the phrase that you stated. If I’m going to ask people to do it, I need to be willing to do it myself. The operative word for me is willing. And the more you do, the more you’re robbing people who are volunteer or staff from doing what they could do. And so the wisdom of this is knowing which to delegate. And there are people capable, and they’re going to do it differently, but sometimes people in my system, my leadership container better than I could have. But you’re also, you filter out the ones that need your personal attention. That’s, you know, burnout is in a crisis right now. And so making that differentiation, that’s a very strong point. I wanted to highlight that. So you did say in there, you don’t think you’re better than anybody else, but it is your vision. and you are the leader, so working on yourself is important. What leadership principles guide your decision-making and how do you continue working on your personal leadership?

Terry Modica
Well, I’m always doing self-analysis. I’m always analyzing the happening within the organization, within what’s successful and what we’re doing, but also not just the organization itself, but like you’re talking about my personal values, it’s something that I value so highly. I believe that when I die, I’m going to be accountable for everything that I’ve done, good and bad. And I want to enter the next life with God saying, well done, good and faithful servant. And I look at, um, what am I doing that needs to be purified so that I can be a better servant so that, and, and I, though I’m the leader, I’m the founder, uh, I am a servant. How can I be a better servant? And that has been one of my guiding principles is just keep asking myself how I can be a better servant.

Hugh Ballou
Love it. Love it. Guiding principles are so important. It’s how you apply your values. So you embrace digital platforms early on. So what led you to that decision and what technology challenges did you face doing that?

Terry Modica
Well, another one of my strong principles is that we need to reach out to where people are. You know, initially when we started Good News Ministries, we were just giving it to local churches, giving seminars, courses, and whatnot. And occasionally we were invited outside of our area to another church, but it was, and this was the first year, and it was just all that. But in the second year, my son, who was a teenager, said, you know, We have something now coming out called the internet. And so I started thinking about how we can reach people this new way. And my son said, I’ll teach you how to make a website. And back then websites were built by writing code by hand in notepad. And so my son taught me. And I took it from there. I took courses and, and you, and I read a lot and I learned, I taught myself how to be a good webmaster. And once. Yeah. So in, so 1995 is when we got started in 96, we had our first website. And at the time there wasn’t a lot of people on the internet yet, but I always liked being a pioneer. looking at the signs of the times, looking at the tools that are becoming available. How are people going to be reached by these tools? I want to be there. I want to be one of those who uses those tools and reaches those people. And so we were one of the first, you know, athletic organizations on the internet. And we, and I also became a Johnny Appleseed. I was so passionate about doing this. I was telling, other people, our Christian radio station are in town, other churches, other organizations, you’ve got to get on the internet. You need a website. So initially I was taking some time away from Good News Ministries to get their websites up and going. And at the time I could do that because the ministry, my ministry was still relatively small. But because of the internet, people were finding us and they were finding, you know, churches still didn’t have websites most of the time. And so when they were looking for answers, they couldn’t find it on a church website, but they found it on us. And so that’s how our audience and our outreach began to grow. And of course, you know, wasn’t long before people in Africa, where they had, they don’t have much, especially at that time, they didn’t have much except a cell phone. And with that cell phone came a few apps, including Facebook. So boom, we were on a Facebook page as soon as Facebook was becoming known. And, and so we just went wherever we could find the people when YouTube became a thing. We said, okay, now we need a YouTube channel. I even experimented with, several years ago, virtual reality, because now the companies were coming out with these head goggles that everybody could wear and look inside these virtual worlds. And it was more accessible to me. I didn’t need to have special skills to create a virtual world. So I thought that would be, I had some online retreats in virtual reality, but it didn’t work out. The people just didn’t jump on board. The kinds of people we’re trying to reach just didn’t jump on board with that fad. And so after a while I had to say, no, let’s not spend our time on this. And so it was a failure, but it was a good failure because. we learn from our failures. And over the years, it’s always been like that. Let’s try this. Well, after a while we analyze it, how’s it been doing? Okay, let’s back off of doing that and try something different. And that’s one way that we avoid burnout, you know, cause it’s not just me that I don’t want to have burnout, it’s my staff. And so it’s a matter of, okay, now we have a new idea. We see something that is going to, reach more people. So let’s do this. What are we going to take off our plate to make room for this on our plate? So it’s always an analysis of what’s working and what’s not working and changing and adapting by paying attention to what’s going on in the world and how are people responding to that.

Hugh Ballou
Love it. So, you’ve been doing this quite a few years. How do you measure impact on the people you serve? And we’re all in this space of what we call non-private charity, social benefit, whatever we call ourselves. We’re here to serve people and impact people’s lives. So, how do you measure impact in people’s lives and what kind of results have you seen over the years?

Terry Modica
Well, there’s always statistics, you know, the statistics on YouTube, the statistics on the websites. Um, you know, we collect, I’ve been collecting and now I’ve trained my staff to do the collecting of the stats, um, and interpreting them and to figure out where do we want to spend more time? Where do we want to spend less time? But one of the important things other than statistics, Yeah. And, and I’m not a numbers lover, you know, so statistics was not something that I was a natural for, but you look at it from the point of view of what are the people telling me through these statistics. And so outside of using statistics to explore that, I looked at the emails that came in any, any contact that came in. And if somebody was saying, this changed my life, what you’re doing, what you’ve sent me has changed my life. There’s a principle to keep in mind that for every one person who spends the time to let you know, there’s probably a thousand people who feel the same way. And so people would, sometimes people would write in and say, like, for example, one of the first things we got going then became the most popular, and it’s still the most popular, are daily reflections based on scripture. And the people, and I would write them myself because I’ve been a writer since 19, a published writer since 1982. So writing was natural for me. And, uh, I, I’ve, so I wrote something for every day, except Saturday, I would give myself a day off and people, you know, just a few people, but once in a while I’d hear people writing to me saying, I wish you had something for Saturday. So I’m like, oh, how do I fit this in without burning out? And eventually, I had the staff trained enough that gave me more time to add the Saturdays. And when I’ve had to, for personal reasons, quit writing Saturdays, people say, hey, I miss Saturday. I’m like, OK, I’ll catch up. It’s like, you listen to what the people tell you. And you take it to heart, which is one of the reasons why it’s important to have that connection and keep that communication going. And I always thank them for their feedback. Even if I don’t like their idea, I thank them for their feedback. And I say, we’ll take it into consideration. And so that’s what has helped us to expand and reach out in more ways over time.

Hugh Ballou
Our time has just flown by. That last point, ask for people’s opinion, but you’re not committing to have to do everything they tell you. You’ll take it into consideration. That’s wisdom. So let me do a quick view of your website. So what is the link for this website?

Terry Modica
GNM, which stands for goodnewsministries.org. Because we’re a nonprofit organization, so it’s .org. And so on our homepage, people can click on to the reflection of the day. We actually show two reflections, today’s and tomorrow’s on there, because some of the people looking at this are in tomorrow already. They’re in Singapore or wherever. And so we have two on there. We have the podcast versions of it on there. We have, we have word bites that we call word bites, but they’re like articles. So one of our websites is like a magazine of articles and we have our latest video on the homepage and a lot of other things that are portals. The homepage is basically a portal to what is it that you’re seeking? And in what format do you want it? You know, as a video, do you want it as a audio podcast? Do you want it as a written article? And we also make it possible for people to download the written articles as PDFs for free. And that by the way, is a great way to build contacts because you get more email addresses and they go into our mailing list. And so we just develop more and more communication that way. And that’s key for the fundraising that we do.

Hugh Ballou
Yes, yes. So you’ve given us a lot of value today. Good News Ministry, the short code is GNM.org. Terry, thank you for sharing your experiences, insights, and leadership wisdom. I’ve gathered from this, your importance of perseverance, clarity of purpose, strategic systems, and innovation in making your nonprofit work sustainable. So I think for people listening, come on, I want you to reflect on your own vision, establish your systems, engage your community, and bring your mission to life. So thank you for being attendance today. Thank you, Terry, for being our guest, and you’ve influenced a lot of people today.

Terry Modica
Thank you. I’m glad to do that.

Hugh Ballou
I want to cut off Facebook now. Bye.