As we're coming right up on the close of 2025, I think it's always important to do a review and take stock of the year that's just gone by. And it might be more important than ever in this particular year, given what a wild ride it's been.

There's a lot of different ways you can come at a year-end review, and you probably already have a process in place in your organization. But I'd like to call out something specific that I think is especially important at the close of 2025. And that's to take stock of your wins. Particularly the kinds of wins that would easily be overlooked otherwise. 

For some Nonprofit leaders, that feels like a stretch right there. How do you clock a win in completely chaotic and abnormal times? Our normal definition of wins may or may not apply. For some they will. For others, it's going to look a little different this year. 

It would be pretty easy to just sort of heave a sigh of relief and say, thank God we survived this year. But that would be selling yourself massively short. 

Here's the thing. No matter how you're feeling about the year and how happy you may be that it is almost over, there were wins. If you had some ginormous obvious wins, of course you are celebrating them. I celebrate with you.

But I also hope you'll use the questions I’m posing to dig into some of the wins that maybe aren't as obvious, but that are every bit as important as the great big showy ones.

In this episode, we share:

• The five categories of wins we might otherwise overlook, that matter more than we know
• Questions to help you investigate what allowed you to see opportunity in the midst of crisis and chaos
• How to uncover the organizational culture factors that caused some of your wins
• Key questions to help you recognize your team members for their roles in the wins
• The two hardest questions for most Nonprofit leaders to answer, that are a key to a successful 2026

Ready to take your messaging and engagement skills to the next level and start getting next-level results? The wait list for my new coaching program is now open. Only 10 Founding Member spots will be available. Claim yours by sending me a message here: 

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Why is there so much dumb public policy and what can we do about it?

There's government money to address a service need in just about every arena, which is great. But the flip side of that is the rules that are attached to that money. The rules about who can be served, how they can be served, under what circumstances, how money can be spent. All those rules, more often than not, get in the way of Nonprofits’ ability to provide a high-quality service that is going to actually solve the problem.

It happens so often that we start to think that's just the way it always is. I had a conversation recently with one of my clients who expressed this exact sentiment. She had been dealing with a number of really stupid public policy problems. And one day in exasperation, she just said, “public policy is just bad. It never works.” 

My initial reaction to that was to argue with her. But the fact is, a lot of the time that's true.

The problem with operating from that frame is two things really. One, it presumes things can't be changed. And two, it keeps you operating under a set of limitations that are tangibly impairing your ability to deliver the exceptional outcomes you want to create.

It’s time to take apart why so much public policy is such a mess. And then look at what we can do about it – without devoting our entire lives to changing public policy. Because we have other work we have to do. 

There really are things that we can do. And you'll not be surprised to learn that a lot of them center on our messaging and engagement strategies.

In this episode, we share:

• The three main causes of unhelpful, counterproductive public policy around funding
• How good intentions result in some of the worst policy decisions
• The biggest mistake Nonprofit leaders often make when trying to get decisionmakers to change an unhelpful policy
• Why your best policy analysis will likely be ignored if you offer it at the wrong point in the process
• The perspective shift we must be able to make in order to motivate the decisionmaker to help solve the problem they created
• How to create powerful metaphors that will help decisionmakers see the flaws in their policy

Ready to take your messaging and engagement skills to the next level and start getting next-level results? The wait list for my new coaching program is now open. Only 10 Founding Member spots will be available. Claim yours by sending me a message here: 

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I see three major mistakes that get made all the time among Nonprofit leaders when they're engaging decisionmakers. These mistakes will invariably cost you influence and results, especially funding results.

Now more than ever, especially in this environment, you need both your existing funders and potential funders to be investing in your work at the highest level. But lately, when you go to talk to elected officials or government agency people or foundations, a lot of times you hear things like, well, there's not really any money right now. We can't afford it. It's not the right time.

And you start to feel like all the stuff you came to tell them that explains why they need to invest is falling on deaf ears. They listen politely enough, but you can feel the resistance. 

And every time you have one of these conversations, your frustration goes up another notch, and your worry level goes up another notch too. 'Cause if we can't break through with these people, if we can't get them to get it, where's the money gonna come from? And then what?

It's tempting to write off those decisionmakers or get mad at them. But if we really want their investment, we have to find a way in. If they're not getting the most essential pieces of what you do and the problem you solve, and the value that solution has, the impact that it makes, and the level of investment that is necessary in order to buy that impact. 

If they're not getting all of that, and not feeling motivated to find a way to make that investment. Then somewhere your messaging and engagement are not doing as good a job for you as they could. 

Chances are you may be making one or more of three very common and costly mistakes.

In this episode, we share:

• Why most introductions create distance and disengagement
• How to change up your introduction to pull decisonmakers in and make them want to know more
• How to weave points of alignment and relevance throughout the conversation to keep the decisionmaker invested
• The critical reframe you must make to counter decisonmakers’ claims of “there’s not enough money”
• The secret to engaging a decisionmaker around the problems they’re most concerned about
• The most common erroneous assumption we make about why a decisionmaker’s not “getting it,” and how that hurts us
• The times when we’re most vulnerable to the biggest engagement pitfalls, and how to stay alert to those

Ready to take your messaging and engagement skills to the next level? The wait list for my new coaching program is now open. Only 10 Founding Member spots will be available. Claim yours by sending me a message here: 

On LinkedIn

Through the Podcast website

What I suspect is true for you is what I'm hearing from a lot of my clients – there's just too much noise in the world. And more and more, we want to be able to focus on the essentials of what's going to work.

When we're talking advocacy, there are two essential ingredients. If you don't have those two fully dialed in, your results are going to be disappointing. You'll keep finding yourself in that place where the decisionmaker doesn't fully get what you do. 

And because they don't fully get what you do, and don't understand the complexity of the problem you solve, they also can't correctly value the worth of the work that you do and the transformational outcomes you create in the lives of the people you serve.

So we've gotta get them to get it. That's the bottom line. Those two critical ingredients for making that happen? If either one of them is not fully dialed in, chances are they're still not going to get it.

I want to help you get those two critical ingredients dialed in and working for you. To get the results you want every time you engage a decision maker.

In this episode, I’m sharing:

·        The three reasons behind decisionmakers not “getting it” about the value of your work

• The top three things you need to do with your messaging to make sure decisionmakers do “get it”
• Why persuasion almost never works
• The key element Nonprofits often leave out of their messaging, that is costing them a ton of influence with decisionmakers
• The five core principles of successful engagement
• The multiplier effect of learning a full set of messaging and engagement skills
• Why the techniques that feel most uncomfortable are the ones you should work hardest to master

Ready to take your messaging and engagement skills to the next level? The wait list for my new coaching program is now open. Only 10 Founding Member spots will be available. Claim yours by sending me a message here: 

On LinkedIn

Through the podcast website

At the beginning of this Thanksgiving week. I wanted to take just a few minutes to share with you my five greatest sources of gratitude right now, and a little bit about why they’re so significant.

We're living in a time when it feels really hard to operate from a place of gratitude. There's a lot going on that is just not good for humans. And it's hard. Nonprofit leaders in particular are feeling super stressed and under attack in a lot of ways, and we're watching attacks on members of our communities. There's a lot of really bad, scary stuff going on.

In the middle of all that, it becomes much too easy to lose sight of what's good in the world. But it's the good stuff that keeps us going. It's the good stuff that gives us a reason to stay in the fight. And to show up for all the people who matter to us, and to whom we matter.

Those of us who are lucky enough to work in the Nonprofit universe, a lot of us are here because we feel called to this work. Whether we're in direct service or advocacy or doing both at the same time, it's a labor of love. We do this because we care.

So when we find ourselves being pulled away from awareness of that and being sucked into the vortex of doom, I think it's really important to take a step back and take a little inventory of all of the things that motivate and inspire us, that recharge us, and that keep us going and keep us sane.

In this episode, I'm sharing:

• What I’m doing (and not doing) to stay sane in crazy times
• Why I’m seeking out people who challenge me and help me grow – and the amazing results that’s creating for me and my clients
• The valuable perspective shift we can take from animals
• The unexpected advocates who are emerging as a powerful source of inspiration for me
• My Thanksgiving wish for you

Interested in joining my new coaching program as a Founding Member? 

Reach out to me here:

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I want to tackle a thing that we all come in contact with on a regular basis. My clients tell me it's one of the most unsettling things that can happen in a meeting with a decisionmaker.

And that's when they throw you some kind of curve ball. Maybe it's a question. Maybe it's a totally out there statement and you don't know what to do with it. It's happened to all of us probably more than once. So you know what I'm talking about. 

When that happens, you're caught a little bit flat-footed. You're like, well, what does that mean? Where did that come from? Why did they think that? Why did they ask that? What's going on? Oh no, I've got one chance to get this right. If I fumble around, that'll look really bad. And all this stuff is whirring through our brain as we're trying to figure out what's the best way to respond to this.

It can definitely be unsettling, no question. But it doesn't have to be – if you're prepared with a set of core strategies that will work no matter what they say to you. 

In this episode, we share:

• The powerful reframe that will change your relationship with curve balls forever
• How curve ball questions (and statements) are likely to show up in both conversations with decisionmakers and live media interviews 
• The four root causes of curveball questions and statements
• What to do first when you get a curve ball 
• How to handle the rare (but dreaded) “gotcha” question
• The four most common mistakes we make when responding to curve balls – and what to do instead

Interested in joining my new coaching program as a Founding Member? 

Reach out to me here:

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I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling a lot more optimistic than I was a week ago. In spite of daily news that can feel pretty daunting, I think we just got a lot of new information out of this past week's elections that give us a ton of reasons for optimism. And I want to share those with you.

A number of my clients have said to me in the last few days, give us a reason for optimism. How are you feeling about this? And each time I've had this conversation, I've gotten clearer about exactly what the big things were that represented major shifts. 

I believe these shifts are reasons to get really excited about the rising power of a vast majority of people in this country who do not agree with what is happening. Who feel very strongly about it, and who are willing to go to the ballot box and make their voices heard.

This election was the first opportunity for voters to weigh in on things since the 2024 elections. And boy did they have a lot to say.

In this episode, we share:

• What the pollsters missed that made a huge difference
• The two most significant factors that drove voters’ shift to blue
• The most important thing that didn’t happen, and why it matters
• The two most critical groups of voters who shifted strongly in our favor, and why
• Why the right’s attempts at additional gerrymandering may backfire on them
• The very surprising data point that tells us how many strong allies we have
• What Nonprofit leaders can do to help fight voter suppression and ensure all eligible clients can make their voices heard in the next elections

Links:

Episode 54 – How to Help the People You Serve Make Their Voices Heard at the Ballot Box

Episode 62 – How Your Nonprofit can Help Your Clients Register to Vote in the 2024 Elections

Episode 66 – How to Help Your Clients Make Sure Their Vote Counts

Help spread the word! If you found value in this episode, I’d be grateful if you would leave a review on iTunes or wherever you listen. Your reviews help other nonprofit leaders find the podcast.  Thanks!!

There is nothing more exciting than talking with a money or policy decisionmaker who's all in on the conversation. They're leaning in, they're asking good questions. Their gears are turning as they think about how you can work together. That's awesome when that happens.

And then, there are the times where you've got the opposite. They're not engaged. Their body language and their relative silence tell you so. They're listening politely enough, but it feels like they're just waiting for you to be done so they can move on.

When that's happening in real time, it is super stressful. You can tell your messaging's not landing. You can feel them slipping further and further away. 

But how to tell what's wrong? And what to do to fix it?

Today I'm sharing with you the four engagement must haves – and how to make sure they're built into all of your messaging. So that you can have the engagement you want and need from your most critical decisionmakers.

In this episode, we share:

• Why it’s harder now to engage decisionmakers than it has even been
• How to pull the decisionmaker in in the first one or two minutes of interaction
• Two key ingredients to grabbing and holding a decisionmaker’s attention
• The real purpose of data and information in the engagement process (it’s not what you’ve been taught)
• How to share ROI data in a way that will get the decisionmaker as excited about it as you are
• Why vivid storytelling is such a powerful engagement tool, and how to use it
• What to focus on first to vastly increase the impact of your message

Help spread the word! If you found value in this episode, I’d be grateful if you would leave a review on iTunes or wherever you listen. Your reviews help other nonprofit leaders find the podcast.  Thanks!!

It is no secret that engagement is the key to influence. It’s one of the biggest themes of my work with my clients. We also focus on how and why information and data are not engaging on their own.

We know great messaging is essential, but there's another piece. The biggest secret to engagement –  and therefore the secret to having your message land with impact – is you. 

You can have fantastic core messaging and still mess up the engagement piece. And when that happens, when the messaging is good, but the engagement fails, that is almost always caused by bringing the wrong energy, vibration, frequency to the encounter.

It happens more often than you'd think. And there are some very specific reasons why it tends to happen. That's what I want to explore today, and help you do things a little bit differently. So that you can consistently bring the kind of energy and vibration and frequency that is going to engage that decisionmaker.

In this episode, we share:

• The biggest driver of your energetic state in a conversation with a decisionmaker
• How to consciously choose the energy you bring, and the emotional state you operate from with decisionmakers, especially when you’re worried about an unwanted result
• Five common emotion-based mistakes many leaders make that can kill the deal, and what to do instead
• How to raise the decisionmaker’s energy and increase the chances of getting a ‘yes’ from them
• Three powerful beliefs to operate from with any decisionmaker that will keep you in a powerful energetic state

Help spread the word! If you found value in this episode, I’d be grateful if you would leave a review on iTunes or wherever you listen. Your reviews help other nonprofit leaders find the podcast.  Thanks!!

I'm super energized to have this conversation on the heels of the massive No Kings protests of October 18th. The greatest mass mobilization to date against authoritarianism in this country.

At the same time, I also understand that it’s really easy to feel overwhelmed with all of the bad things coming at us out of this administration. And how easy it is to feel like the actions of one person can't make that much of a difference. But in fact, nothing could be further from the truth.

I was fortunate to be able to attend the huge protest in Washington DC on Saturday. Over 200,000 people were there. We filled Pennsylvania Avenue from steps from the capitol, all the way to the White House. It was extraordinary.

How amazing is it that there were over 7 million people who turned all over the country. In big cities, of course – New York, LA, Chicago. Even more inspiring to me were the thousands of smaller cities and towns and even rural highways, where people showed up to make their voices heard. And to make it abundantly clear that they are not happy with what is happening. They're not happy with the authoritarian power grabs that are happening from 47 and his crew, the complacency of the Republicans in Congress just letting him do whatever he wants. The whole thing is wrong and everybody knows it. And they're standing up to say so.  

Part of what was so inspiring and exciting to me was the energy – of hope and determination and belief that by banding together and through the power of our collective action, we can slow down what is happening. We can eventually stop it and then begin to reverse it.

The other thing that I so loved was the absolute joy that people were bringing. We all know it's kind of hard to feel joy with the unbelievably egregious actions from this administration damaging individuals and entire communities. 

You might even say it’s unreasonable to feel joy in the face of that. But the source of the joy was from being in the presence of all of these thousands and thousands of people who are here to accomplish the same thing. Who believe passionately in reversing the terrible stuff that's going on and moving us all toward a much better day. That joyous, hopeful energy is so important and so instructive for how we can prevail.

That, and taking concrete action…

In this episode, we share:

• The biggest pitfalls that will take you out of your power, and how to avoid them
• The one simple task that will put you on the path to powerful action
• How to leverage the power of collective action every day
• How to craft messaging that will engage a wider circle of people – even those who aren’t paying much attention to what’s going on
• How to destabilize the pillars that prop up a would-be authoritarian regime
• Three specific actions you can take as a nonprofit leader to make a big impact in this fight

Help spread the word! If you found value in this episode, I’d be grateful if you would leave a review on iTunes or wherever you listen. Your reviews help other nonprofit leaders find the podcast.  Thanks!!