Nonprofit Nation with Julia Campbell

What The Fundraising with Mallory Erickson

• Julia Campbell • Season 2 • Episode 164

Share episode

In this episode of Nonprofit Nation, I have an inspiring and heartfelt conversation with Mallory Erickson, the brilliant mind behind What The Fundraising: Embracing and Enabling the People Behind the Purpose, which launched on October 1st. As a fundraising expert and coach, Mallory opens up about the emotional journey behind writing her first book, and how her personal experiences as a new mother shaped her approach to both life and work.

Mallory shares the challenges of writing and rewriting a significant portion of her book while caring for her newborn daughter, Ila. She speaks candidly about the vulnerability that comes with sharing her heart, soul, and hard-earned wisdom in her pages. Despite her nerves, she’s driven by her personal mantra: Do it scared!

Key Highlights:

  • The Emotional Journey Behind What The Fundraising: Mallory reflects on the balancing act of authorship and new motherhood, and how this unique season of her life influenced the themes of her book.
  • Introduction of Alignment Fundraising: Mallory’s signature framework helps fundraisers find harmony between their work and personal wellbeing, while avoiding burnout and achieving greater impact.
  • Genuine Donor Relationships: The book emphasizes building meaningful and lasting connections with donors, moving beyond transactional interactions to foster genuine partnerships.
  • Special Launch Event: Listeners are invited to pre-order What The Fundraising and gain access to a host of exciting bonuses, including a free month inside the Alignment Fundraising Collective, and an exclusive Virtual Launch Party on October 3rd with fundraising influencer Floyd Jones.

Join us for an empowering discussion on how to fundraise with both passion and sustainability, as Mallory reveals the core of her book and the practical tools she developed from her own triumphs and struggles in the nonprofit sector. Whether you're new to fundraising or a seasoned leader, this episode will leave you inspired to embrace vulnerability, find alignment, and thrive in your work.

About Mallory Erickson

Mallory Erickson is an executive coach, fundraising consultant, and host of the podcast What the Fundraising. She is dedicated to transforming the way nonprofit leaders approach their roles and fundraising efforts. With her signature framework, the Power Partners Formula™️, Mallory equips nonprofits with the unique tools needed to secure funding from foundations, corporate partners, and individuals. By October 2023, she has trained over 60,000 fundraisers with elements of her innovative, win-win framework, blending executive coaching, science-backed behavior design, and strategic fundraising practices.

Connect with Mallory on LinkedIn
Learn more about Mallory Erickson
Instagram: @_malloryerickson

Pre-order What The Fundraising and claim your bonuses

Take my free masterclass: 3 Must-Have Elements of Social Media Content that Converts

>> Julia Campbell:

Is it me, or does social media feel completely overwhelming right now? Are your posts underperforming and you don't know what to do about it? Well, I've got you covered. Join me and Neon one for the 2024 nonprofit Social Media Summit. Specifically designed for the small and mid sized nonprofit, this summit offers actionable and practical insights on how to best use social media to raise awareness and raise funds even during turbulent times. I want you to walk away feeling empowered and supported with strategies you can implement right away. And best of all, it's free to attend live, thanks to my amazing partner, Neon one. So reserve your spot today@nonprofitsocialmediasummit.com. now on to the show. Hello and welcome to Nonprofit Nation. I'm your host, Julia Campbell, and I'm going to sit down with nonprofit industry experts, fundraisers, marketers, and everyone in between to get real and discuss what it takes to build that movement that you've been dreaming of. I created the nonprofit Nation podcast to share practical wisdom and strategies to help you confidently find your voice, definitively grow your audience, and effectively build your movement. If you're a nonprofit newbie or an experienced professional who's looking to get more visibility, reach more people, and create even more impact, then you're in the right place. Let's get started. Hi, everyone. this is Nonprofit Nation. I'm your host, Julia Campbell. So excited to be with you today. Thanks for listening. I have one of my favorite people on the podcast today. She really needs no introduction. It's Mallory Erickson. And in this episode, we are going to have a heartfelt and inspiring conversation around her new book, what the fundraising embracing and enabling the people behind the purpose, which launched on October 1. And as a fundraising expert and coach, Mallory will talk about sort of the journey behind writing her book and how her personal experiences as a mother shaped her approach to both life and work. I love that she's so vulnerable and open about it. But she also is going to talk about her mantra of do it scared, the, introduction of alignment, fundraising, how to create genuine donor relationships, and a lot of other tools and frameworks that fundraisers can use to really do their jobs better and a more intentional way. So, Mallory, thank you so much for being here.

>> Mallory Erickson:

Thank you for having me and for all your kind words. I'm so honored to get to do this episode with you.

>> Julia Campbell:

Yeah, I'm excited. So let's just dive right into what inspired you to write what the fundraising. And I want to talk a little bit about the COVID but we can talk about that later, because I love that whole journey. But what inspired you to write this book? What do you hope readers are going to take away from it?

>> Mallory Erickson:

Yeah, I mean, truthfully, if I'm being really, really honest, what inspired me to write the book was really like Nathan Chappelle kind of like kicking, sticking my butt into gear, and I was like, I don't really need to, or I don't really want to. And, he really, like, pushed me to say yes to Wiley to do this. And I don't know why I did it at first. I think I did it because I thought it would help me build more of like a speaking, you know. And then what was funny was that, I signed the contract. Nobody knew I signed the contract. And then all of a sudden, my speaking career sort of took off without the book. And so I was like, maybe I didn't have to write the book, but actually writing it helps. Yeah, well, it helps, maybe, with speaking for me also just really helped me kind of like, formalize my research and my argument, and it really forced me to take all these, like 170 what the fundraising podcast, interviews, and say, like, okay, like, what are my big takeaways? Like, when I think about what are the core elements from all this research, all this learning that, I really think give us a snapshot of where we're at as a sector and how we move forward in a more sustainable way. It really forced me to, like, look hard at all of it and solidify my sort of, like, argument around it.

>> Julia Campbell:

And you started this journey when you were pregnant with your second child?

>> Mallory Erickson:

Yeah, I mean, in some ways, you know, the, we talk a lot about.

>> Julia Campbell:

That on social media, which I love.

>> Mallory Erickson:

Yeah. So the research I've been doing on what, the fundraising since 2021. I signed the contract with Wiley, and I think the next week found out I was pregnant, as, it always.

>> Julia Campbell:

Happens as you do.

>> Mallory Erickson:

and then I got very sick for like, 26 weeks. And so when I thought I was going to be writing the book, I wasn't writing the book. And then fundraising AI, ah, sort of exploded, and I was also not writing the book. And I, tried to get some help in different areas, which didn't really work out. And so I ended up completely rewriting the book. Six weeks postpartum, four to six weeks postpartum. and so most of my, photos of me writing the book, I have a tiny little newborn baby sleeping on me or in her little carrier, and I'm at the counter typing and. Yeah, and, you know, it's, it was a little bit bananas, but also actually really, like, sweet and special because, you know, that, postpartum phase is so isolating already, and it's, like, quiet and you're in your own head. And I think it actually really gave me the space to grapple with some of my own thinking around these concepts instead of being in meetings all day or getting other people's ideas, or I, you know, kind of, like, processing out loud. And I actually think that, like, made it possible for me to write it.

>> Julia Campbell:

I wrote my first book when I was postpartum with my son Colin, who's now nine. It's so hard to think about that, but I remember I had this plan that it would be done and to the publisher before he was born, and best, like, plans and so many different things happen and just a variety of things, and I feel the same way. I've just been loving your journey. Just you being so open on LinkedIn and Instagram and talking about your journey, writing this as a working mom, as, you know, full time working mom. It's.

>> Mallory Erickson:

I don't know.

>> Julia Campbell:

Why do we do it? Why do we do it? We were just talking about Red Bull and all sorts of things, so. Coffee? I don't know. I'm drinking a seltzer. Like, I don't know what we do.

>> Mallory Erickson:

I don't know. Coffee.

>> Julia Campbell:

So you say that this is sort of your love letter to the sector. This is your love letter to fundraisers. Can you talk about maybe, like, your journey, like, how you came into the work that you're doing today and how that's really influenced some of the ideas in the book?

>> Mallory Erickson:

Yeah, I mean, so I was a frontline fundraiser, although somebody who really didn't call themselves a fundraiser. Right. I was a managing director that had big fundraising responsibilities, an executive director that had big fundraising responsibilities. And so I. The. The term fundraiser never fully, like, aligned. I was the person who did the fundraising. And so. And I say that in the book that, like, this is for fundraisers, even if you don't consider yourself a fundraiser, but you really are, like, taking those actions. And, I mean, I hated fundraising, and it wasn't. I hated the way I felt. I felt so disempowered and disembodied and frustrated and confused and burnt out. And, you know, so much of my journey led me on to a quest to first, like, solve my experience, right? I was like, I love this sector. I don't want to leave this sector, but I cannot do it this way anymore. And so, so much of it was like, my personal journey that then led into the work that I do today and watching the way that some of the tools and, strategies and frameworks that I initially created for me started to have, this same effect on lots and lots of fundraisers. And then I started to become even more kind of obsessed with what is happening inside the brains and bodies of fundraisers that hold us back from taking the actions we want to be taking. And what does it look like for us to use, like, quote, unquote, kind of like, uncommon, strategies to really enable us to be able to fundraise in aligned ways that feel good to us as fundraisers and feel good to donors, too? I mean, I think those things are just so deeply connected. Like, no, m before I started this chapter of my work around some of the, like, sector wide trends that we are experiencing, the decline in financial giving to the sector and the staffing crisis around sort of burnout and turnover. And I just really believe that those are not separate problems and that they're both being caused by the transactional ways that a lot of us have been taught to fundraise that feel bad to us and feel bad to donors. The good news about that is that means we can solve those things together. Like, that we can feel better and do better and raise more, and it's all connected. And so when I say it's my love letter, like, I'm very vulnerable. Throughout the book, I talk about a lot of my own journey and pain points and things I did wrong and things that at one point I probably felt a lot of shame around. I talk about, like, to treat a donor really transactionally.

>> Julia Campbell:

Oh, I know.

>> Mallory Erickson:

And so I think, like, for me, the, like, love letter part is a little bit, like, I recognize that I'm in a position of, like, positional power where, like, I'm not a nonprofit fundraiser or leader right now. I don't have a board breathing down my neck. I can sort of say what I want free from retaliation, at least in a formal way. And so, because I'm in that position, but I know what it's like to sit in all those other seats, too. Putting myself, like, putting my opening up. My experience with that level of vulnerability is to hopefully create space for other people to talk about it and to talk about things that they feel comfortable talking about, but also to just sort of, like, take some of the story and just be like, okay, I'll use my own example here that folks can kind of point to if they don't yet feel ready to talk about their own experience.

>> Julia Campbell:

I think that's what really resonates is that personal vulnerability in those stories. In the book, you talk about your personal mantra, which is do it scared. Can you talk about that also within writing the book and fundraising and sort of how does that encompass your personal mantra?

>> Mallory Erickson:

Yeah, I mean, yeah, so, definitely, like, do it scared is one of my. Is one of my, like, personal mantras. I mean, I think, you know, I talk about in the book this progression that, you know, I see with most fundraisers, from discomfort to burnout, and we feel this initial discomfort, you know, talking about money. And then that leads to this dysregulation that leads to chronic stress, which is impacted by levels of uncertainty and rejection. Isolation, power dynamics, pressure, all those things have been scientifically proven to increase our stress, increase our burnout. And so we see this, like, decline happening. One of the things that leads to that decline, of course, are, like, the environmental components around us, the systemic issues in the sector that we don't have tools for sort of, like, dealing with, but part of what causes it are these feelings that we have that don't go unchallenged in our minds. So when we feel scared about something, immediately our body starts to create all this resistance, right? It's like shutting down. You know? When we feel fear, our stress response goes on, and our stress response's job is to keep us alive and to conserve our energy. It is not to be vulnerable or connected or authentic or have big thoughts.

>> Julia Campbell:

And innovative ideas, right.

>> Mallory Erickson:

To be creative or collaborative or innovative or any of those things, it's like, survive, conserve energy. And so, like, when we're. When we're nervous. And I mean, fear might feel big for people to hear that word, but it's like every time you're feeling resistance, reaching out to a donor or walking into a donor meeting, like, that is fear, right? That is your stress response. And if you don't have tools for expecting that response to come online in those moments and then tools to downregulate your nervous system and motivate yourself over the action line, then you take that resistance and that fear as truth. You're like, I shouldn't be doing this. Right. Then all those other voices start, like, wrong, right? I'm doing something wrong. Oh, I shouldn't send this email this day. Maybe I shouldn't do it exactly that way. That's how fear shows up, right? And all these self sabotaging narratives that we hear in our head. And so, for me, the, like, do it. Scared is the, like, one anticipation that fear is a part of doing new things and change and being bold and brave and all those things. So part of it is like expecting that fear is going to be a part of my daily experience, and then recognizing that fear does not mean I'm doing the wrong thing. It does not mean I'm in the wrong place or I'm making the wrong decision. And most of the time, it means I'm exactly where I should be. And so that being one of the mantras for me is really, like, helps me stay over the action line and not misinterpret fear to guide me, because that would just keep me small and playing safe and not doing anything new.

>> Julia Campbell:

I love how you pull in data back principles from the behavioral science field. How did you come to meld that in with your personal experience and your experience sort of boots on the ground with fundraising?

>> Mallory Erickson:

You know, it's funny. I mean, I think maybe there was, like, a part of me that always just kind of, like, geeked out around, thought, you know, like, I, like, maybe one of my biggest high school regrets was, like, not taking psychology. And so I think I've always just been kind of fascinated in how people think and how people feel and then how that happens on, like, an individual level and, like, systems level. And I think, honestly, I got certified as an executive coach, and I got trained in habit and behavior design with Doctor BJ Fogg. And those things really, like, started to open my mind to the fact that, like, oh, a lot of these ways that I have felt as a fundraiser are actually probably pretty common, even if people don't talk about them. And so I started to talk about them a little more, which, of course, opened up other people talking about it a little bit more. But there still hasn't been a lot of research done on fundraisers. Like, there's a big gap in, behavioral science research, in my opinion. We do a lot of research around donor behavior. There's a big open gap around fundraisers and the fundraiser experience. And so when I couldn't find research about fundraisers, I started to want to interview all these people that dealt with sort of like, like, related but not identical scenarios. So, you know, interviewing somebody who's a behavioral scientist, studying influence and asking for things, somebody who deal, you know, my first podcast interview is with Doctor Ethan Cross, who wrote this book, chatter. And I read his book in, like, 24 hours and literally dmed him on Instagram right now and was like, I.

>> Julia Campbell:

Need to talk to you.

>> Mallory Erickson:

Made me want to start a podcast. I feel like if I could get every fundraiser to read your book, it would change fundraising. And so it just started me on this path of realizing, like, okay, like, we talk so much about, like, strategies and steps and templates, like, all those things, but, like, there is enough of that out there for people to do better, and it's not happening. Giving, financial giving, continues to decline. So maybe we stop layering the same stuff again and again and again and we think about what haven't we tried yet? And to me, a lot of the strategies that come up in the. In the behavioral science side of things, you know, have been proven in all these other ways to help people take action.

>> Julia Campbell:

No, that's really smart, because if you can't start with yourself, you know, if you just sort of continue to be on the hamster wheel of, like, you, you write, you know, the shiny objects is syndrome, perfectionism, and grasping at straws and throwing spaghetti at the wall and all the different metaphors. If you continue to do that without really understanding the underlying causes of what's happening with you or what's happening in your organization, there could be something toxic going on within your organization that is not being addressed. And without, addressing those systemic challenges, I don't think. I agree with you that I don't think you, as an individual fundraiser, if you're listening, can move forward from that.

>> Mallory Erickson:

Yeah. And, you know, like, in the book, it's interesting, like, the book is so nuanced. Right? And, like, I think there's this, like, risk sometime with coaching and even, like, certain types of behavioral science that over, like, emphasize the individual or individualize a problem. Right. It's like, oh, right.

>> Julia Campbell:

Like, this is my unique problem and no one else has it.

>> Mallory Erickson:

Yes. What's the pressure on the individual to solve it? Right? Like, that's a little bit how I feel about how self care, the way we talk about self care is, like, now, this other thing that we put on individuals to solve for themselves without any recognition that, like, the system is, like, making it very hard. And now we've once again added something else to people's to do list that they are responsible for.

>> Julia Campbell:

Such a good point. It's like, can someone just organize it for me and pay for it and invite me and schedule it and get childcare and all that?

>> Mallory Erickson:

Or just, like, not run me into the ground so that I need so much today? Or, like, it could be integrated into my life in different ways and it doesn't have to be this, like, oh, my gosh, I shut everything down because then I can't handle, you know, whatever. But I won't go down that rabbit hole. But all that to say, like, I think there's this, like, there's this interesting balance that I really tried to create in the book between like naming the systemic issues that are causing the environment that, to these problems, like when I say embracing and enabling the people behind the purpose, the enablement comes from the system. changes that need to happen in order for fundraisers to be able to get over that action line in real ways. And there are things that we can do as individuals that increase our capacity to deal with the system. So it's like this both and situation. I don't want to downplay the systemic, like, challenges that we face. They are real, they are there. And as, individuals, we create a lot of additional challenges, a lot of additional inner barriers for ourselves because of how our brains and bodies have been programmed to operate, which is not our fault, but that is why we do need individual tools to be able to give ourselves more capacity for dealing with those systemic challenges.

>> Julia Campbell:

Okay, I'm not going to try to unpack that because I think that was so well said. And I also think people are going to be rewinding that. Like in the car, I can just see myself like pressing the rewind button and taking notes. I want to jump to alignment fundraising. This concept you created and how it differs from traditional fundraising.

>> Mallory Erickson:

So, okay, so I talk about alignment fundraising in the book, Capital A, Capital F, and I fundraising af.

>> Julia Campbell:

Just kidding. This is a family podcast.

>> Mallory Erickson:

Okay, okay, sorry.

>> Julia Campbell:

I haven't born yet.

>> Mallory Erickson:

I'm very proud of myself. So I'm not the only person who talks about alignment. Alignment is talked about in fundraising in a lot of different ways. What I mean by this term, what I've tried to sort of formalize with this term is how we stay embodied as alignment first fundraisers instead of m money first fundraisers, which has a relationship between inner alignment, personal alignment, organizational alignment, and then alignment with our funders. We can say that our goal is to find aligned funders. We can all send out emails saying, I noticed that you do this and I think we're aligned on alignment can be a strategy till we're all blue in the face. What I want and what I have tried to formalize with alignment fundraising is alignment as an intention and having alignment as an intention, really looking for whether or not you and that funder are actually aligned, where you don't want their money, no matter what, where all money is not created equal, where you're really trying to figure out are we trying to do something together where we both recognize that we both have value and assets and that by partnering we can achieve shared goals? That type of alignment requires a level of inner alignment. It requires us to get out of scarcity mindset and transactional fundraising practices that have us prioritize closing the deal no matter what. And so the first part of the book, the first part of the solutions part of the book, before I get into any of the strategy, is really around that inner alignment piece. Because we can all say like, yes, I want to find alignment in my funders, but if we have ways that we are consistently pulled out of alignment through pressure or uncertainty or power dynamics, then we actually aren't fundraising in an alignment first way.

>> Julia Campbell:

Oh, that's so interesting. I think that's really neat. You have a cohort that's launching around alignment fundraising.

>> Mallory Erickson:

Yes. So we have. I have been running the power Partners formula since 2021 as a part of that program. We've always had a group coaching component. And what we've done recently, though, is that we've sort of separated the course, which goes into depth into how you implement everything that's inside the book, inside what? The fundraising like, if you want to step by step, like, how do you create fundraising plans that way and outreach emails and all those things? That's inside power partners. The course, if you want support in community, implementing what's inside the book, you can join just the alignment fundraising collective, which are just the group coaching programs, the private community, because there's going to be a, fair amount of guidance in the book as well. And so we really wanted there to be a space where folks who are working to become alignment first fundraisers can come together, get support directly from me, be in community together, and really have a place to go and kind of refine that practice for themselves.

>> Julia Campbell:

I love that. Okay, where can people find that? Just because I know they'll be interested. And we will talk about this at the end. But where, where can people find information on that?

>> Mallory Erickson:

If you go to Mallory erickson.com, backslash alignment fundraising collective, or if you just go to my main homepage and search like under for fundraisers, you'll see that option right there as well.

>> Julia Campbell:

Okay, I will put all this in the show notes. So what I think is interesting about this conversation and this book, and I'm sure that you have thought about this a great deal. Oftentimes, like you and I, we are working with people that might not necessarily be the decision makers. You know, like, I work with marketers and fundraisers you work with marketers and fundraisers are not necessarily the top level. Eds. Certainly Eds CEO's, board members can benefit from the work that you do and from this book. So how can we, as frontline fundraisers, create, you know, this significant change? Like, what shifts can we create? How can we convince the top down leadership to embrace some of these strategies and these frameworks?

>> Mallory Erickson:

Yeah, I mean, so my hope is that the book is really written, like I was sort of mentioning before, in two parts, right? The problem and the solution. And really, like, the book is framed not just for fundraisers. And it says this in the introduction, too. Like this is for people who support fundraisers. And so my hope is that people who are, whether it's the ed of an organization or board members or funders, that this book helps people understand fundraisers a lot better. Understand like, the different challenges that fundraisers are up against and the different things that we do as, you know, support service folks that actually add gasoline to the fire instead of a bucket of cold water. And so I think, like, particularly in, you know, chapter three, where I talk about the decline from discomfort to burnout, and I talk about these elements of fundraising that really have been scientifically proven to increase chronic stress and increase burnout, there's a lot in there for the ways that leaders can show up differently, right? So pressure, for example, like we, we talk about burnout a lot in terms of just overwork work. We're like, oh, we're working nights and weekends. We're working too much, we have too many hats. That's why we're all burnt out. I'm not saying that we should not work less and that overwork is not a contributor at all, but we make that way bigger of a deal. We make that the focus. And in my opinion, even if we had everybody in this sector working 30 hours a week, not working nights and weekends, we actually would not solve the burnout crisis because of these other elements of the work. And so I want, what I want positional leaders to really see is the way that, like pressure around certain KPI's that are disconnected, you know, people's expectations, being disconnected from how they resource these fundraisers, that is adding to chronic stress and burnout. It is making them less able to build healthy relationships, be innovative, creative, connect with your donors, creating more uncertainty for them. For leaders who are switching direction every 2 seconds and creating kind of more chaos and uncertainty around how we're going to increase our goals, that is creating more dysregulation in your fundraisers. That is decreasing their capacity to be able to take action on the things you want them to take action on. The more you isolate your fundraisers, the more other people on your teams are saying, oh, but I'm not the fundraiser. And you have the fundraiser being kind of like the means to the end or fundraising be this necessary evil that's creating isolation in your fundraisers, that is increasing their dysregulation, their chronic stress, and decreasing their capacity for connected relationships. So everything you want your fundraisers to do, everything you want your fundraisers to fundraisers to be doing requires them to be able to come out of a stress state. If you are telling your fundraisers, just build relationships, but you are keeping them trapped in chronic stress, you are making it physically impossible for them to do the thing you're asking them to do. We cannot build relationships in chronic stress, so we either need to be real about the environment we have created for our fundraisers, or we need to recognize that we are responsible for these outcomes because we're asking to do something physically impossible.

>> Julia Campbell:

Wow, that's like a mic drop moment. I love that we're asking fundraisers to do something physically impossible. And if you are in a state of constant stress, even if you're working 20 hours a week, I know a lot of my part time fundraisers are even more stressed because they're only supposed to be working 20 hours, but then they're working 30 or 40 hours and then the full time people are working 60, 70 hours. So that makes complete sense to me. I want to talk a little bit about fundraising AI. So I know at this time the summit will have already happened. But I think what's so interesting about the evolution of fundraising AI, so it's just fundraising AI, if you want to learn more about it, is that there's this marriage of the super techie people and the software companies, and then Mallory, who is like, you got the fundraisers back, right? You've got the behavioral science, you have the empathy, you really understand what's going through people's brains and you understand how overwhelming this technology can be, and you're speaking to people in a way that really resonates with them, whereas you're not just saying you have to get on this train or it's going to take off without you. Sort of what's the future of fundraising AI? And what's going on? What are some initiatives that you're excited about?

>> Mallory Erickson:

Well, I'm very excited that we, Jen has actually been with us for a long time, since the very beginning. But Jenkin is the new director of fundraising AI. And so she is really starting to lead the charge around sort of what is to come in terms of how fundraising AI shows up as a real, you know, content provider, amplifier research partner in the space around the responsible and convener around this responsible and beneficial use of AI and fundraising. Yes, it feels totally hilarious in certain ways that I am, like, leading this AI perfect, but in some ways, it actually does feel really perfect, because I think I often feel like my work sits at that intersection of fundraiser enablement and overwhelm, and AI sits exactly there, too. And I think it's also about, you know, recognizing that this is why it's nuance is so important, right? Because it's like all of the, it's so easy in our tech bubble worlds to be like, like, oh my gosh, this thing is so cool. This can change everything. Like, just spend five minutes and your whole life is going to be changed. And then understand that, the person you're telling that to is completely shut down from that. They are in a stress state, they are in a survival mode. You just mentioned change, transformation, uncertainty. It's like, once again, we are adding gasoline to the fire. Instead of a bucket of cold water, we think it's a bucket of cold water. But because we aren't aware of where that person is really at in that moment, and we aren't taking that moment to meet them where they're at, we're actually making the situation worse. And so I really wanted to get involved in this initiative because I felt like there was this big disconnect between the excitement and energy of, ah, technology and the lived experience of the people that those messages were being like, put.

>> Julia Campbell:

On 100%, I thought that it was so brilliant. And then when you, the first summit, when you pull together people that are familiar to fundraisers, so familiar faces like me, like other people, really, comforting almost. I love that idea of the intersection between enablement and overwhelm. And I think a lot of the work I do around digital marketing and fundraising is the same thing. It's like enablement and the power and potential of these tools. But then, and the lived experience of the fundraiser that is really just getting through the day and trying not to maybe cry in the break room, and hopefully no one's doing that today, but this has been amazing. I would love to get one piece of advice, like your best piece of advice that you would give to fundraisers feeling overwhelmed or stuck right now, especially as we're going into election season, year end all of that.

>> Mallory Erickson:

Part of my hope in how the book impacts people is that it increases their motivation to prioritize themselves, even in micro moments. I was 100% that fundraiser. That was like, I don't have time to take a five minute walk. I don't have time to do this. You haven't seen my to do list. You have no idea. All the things on my plate, right? Like, I joke that I used to, like, get up and walk out of Shavasana, in yoga, because I was like, I don't have time for. That's like brown ds, right? So for those who are listening to this and are like, I don't have time for anything. You're talking about Mallory. Like, that was 100% me. What I want to open up, your curiosity around is that your resistance might not be time related, it might be fear related to really, like, feel your feelings and, like, sit in the quiet for a second or take that moment. But what I want you to know is that those tiny moments, those tiny moments of five deep breaths, those tiny moments of taking the palms of your hand and putting them into your eye sockets to downregulate your nervous system, those tiny moments of putting your hands on your chest or your feet on the floor that you can do in the middle of a meeting while you're going through your to do list, whatever it is. Okay, maybe you can't put your hands in your eyes in the middle of the meeting, but you can do your feet on the floor, your hands on your chest. Five deep breaths. Those things that down regulate our nervous system, that activate our parasympathetic nervous system, our rest and digest, those are the things that give us inner capacity for change and for the next step. And so my one takeaway is start tiny and come back to yourself. Find moments in these next few months in all this craziness, to come back to yourself in tiny moments, to feel your body, to feel your feet on the floor, to acknowledge and validate how you feel, to just say to yourself when you're feeling overwhelmed, that makes sense to just be, like, a little bit kinder to yourself and a little bit more embodied in the tiniest ways and then see how that opens up maybe a little bit more space and a little bit more space for a different relationship with yourself.

>> Julia Campbell:

Thank you for that. And where can people find the book? Where can they find more about you and connect with you?

>> Mallory Erickson:

Yeah, if you go to Mallory ericsson.com, you can find out all about me and Backslash book, you'll find all the information about the book and then connect with me on Instagram. Mallory Erickson or on LinkedIn. Mallory Bressler Erickson. There, I. Let me know. You listen to this show and what your big takeaway is, and what's one thing you're going to do to build one tiny thing you're going to do to give yourself a moment with yourself, over these next few months? I'd love to hear it.

>> Julia Campbell:

Thank you. And on that note, yes, I would encourage you to do all of the same things. I'll put all the links in the show notes. We'd love to hear from you. What is one tiny step, one tiny thing that you're going to do based on what you heard today? So thanks so much. Mallory, I know you're preparing for a big event and preparing for the summit and preparing for a bunch of different things, so I really appreciate you taking the time to be here.

>> Mallory Erickson:

Thank you so much. Thank you so much. I really appreciate you having me on the show and for everything that you do for our community. So thank you.

>> Julia Campbell:

Well, hey there. I wanted to say thank you for tuning into my show and for listening all the way to the end. If you really enjoyed today's conversation, make sure to subscribe to the show in your favorite podcast app and you'll get new episodes downloaded as soon as they come out. I would love if you left me a rating or a review, because this tells other people that my podcast is worth listening to, and then me and my guests can reach even more earbuds and create even more impact. So that's pretty much it. I'll be back soon with a brand new episode, but until then, you can find me on Instagram. Uliac Campbell, 77 keep changing the world. you nonprofit unicorn.