Episodes

Nov. 3, 2025

Four Simple Checks to Tell You if Your Message is Built for Maximum Impact

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 time…
Oct. 26, 2025

The X Factor that can Make or Break Your Message's Impact

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 e...
Oct. 21, 2025

How Each One of Us Can Help Prevent an Authoritarian Takeover

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 comi…
Oct. 12, 2025

How to Use the Power of Vision to Help Decisionmakers Commit to You on a Greater Scale

There's a huge problem happening all over the Nonprofit universe and beyond right now, and that's fundamentally the problem of fear. In fairness, it's a pretty scary time. And fear is not unfounded for sure. There are genuine threats facing Nonprofits individually and the sector more broadly. And t…
Oct. 5, 2025

What's Standing in the Way Between You and the Advocacy Results You Want?

One of the sources of constant frustration that I hear from Nonprofit leaders is about not having the advocacy results they want. If that's you, you're in good company. A lot of Nonprofit leaders experience this problem. The ...
Sept. 28, 2025

A True Story that Just Might Change How You Talk to Decisionmakers

I want to share with you a story of something that happened to me that I think carries some powerful lessons for how we approach not just advocacy, but pretty much everything. But those lessons are only part of point. When yo...
Sept. 21, 2025

How to Claim Your Unique Value in the Marketplace

On a scale of 1 to 10, how comfortable are you in saying out loud that your organization's work and the results that you get are the best? The best. If you said 10, congratulations. You are in great shape on that front. But if your response was an 8 or below. Or if you didn't even answer, but inste…
Sept. 14, 2025

How Do You Decide What to Say Yes to?

Here's something I think we probably all would agree is true: Nonprofit leaders are great at saying yes. We say yes to opportunities. We say yes to those who need our help. It's kind of in our DNA. I know many Nonprofit leaders who see their readiness to say yes as a virtue. But what if some of the…
Sept. 7, 2025

How to Deal with Decisionmakers Who Say There's No Money Right Now

There is a thing going on out there that we have to talk about. It's making me crazy. I'm pretty sure it's making you crazy too. And that's this business of all these money decisionmakers, whether they're foundations or elected officials or government agencies, you name it. They're all singing the …
Aug. 31, 2025

Why More Information Rarely Results in Greater Understanding

I hear from Nonprofit leaders all the time about how frustrating it is that they've explained their work to decisionmakers a million times and they still don't get it. And you respond by going out and gathering even more convincing data and information, thinking surely this will make them see the l…
Aug. 24, 2025

How to Cultivate the Personal Power You Need Right Now

Just about everywhere I go, folks are having some version of the conversation about how we're all responding to the crazy (stuff) that is going on in our world. How we’re responding both as citizens of this country and as Nonprofit leaders in particular. And the impact that's having on us personall…
Aug. 17, 2025

How to Apply Pressure to Decisionmakers, Without it Blowing Up in Your Face

We are in a time where more and more, for a lot of decisionmakers, pressure is a necessary component to our advocacy. At the same time, we're operating in an environment where some decisionmakers, including some very high-pro...
Aug. 10, 2025

How to Establish Yourself as an Expert in the Eyes of Decisionmakers

Have you ever been frustrated by a decisionmaker who doesn't acknowledge your expertise and therefore doesn't take your advice? Or have you ever hesitated to brand yourself as an expert? These may seem like two separate problems, but they're actually related. And if you've ever experienced either o…
Aug. 3, 2025

The Hidden Trap in Tailoring Your Messaging to Decisionmakers’ Concerns

It's time to talk about a hidden flaw in one of the most common messaging strategies that we're all using. And that, if we're not aware of it, can really come back and bite us. Here's how that winds up happening. You've worked hard on tailoring your messaging. You've done your research, and taken a…
July 27, 2025

Three Ways to Take Maximum Advantage of the Congressional Recess Right Now

Members of Congress are on their way home as we speak, for basically a month long recess, which is known in Congressional speak as a district work period. I want to make sure you have everything you need to take full advantag...
July 20, 2025

The Four Essential Elements at the Heart of High-Impact Advocacy Messaging

The stakes are really high with advocacy messaging these days, especially for nonprofits. Effective messaging is so critical to every aspect of engaging decisionmakers. At any point in the process, no matter where you are in ...
July 11, 2025

Three Areas of Personal Growth that Will Have the Biggest Impact on Your Advocacy Success

Our personal growth as an advocate and as a leader is probably the single most important ingredient for our advocacy success. And yet, it’s one of the things we most often overlook. We don't give enough time and attention to ...
July 6, 2025

The Fastest Way to Get Decisionmakers to Value, Respect, and Rely on Your Expertise

One of the biggest frustrations that I hear from Nonprofit leaders is that much too often for comfort, decisionmakers fail to recognize or value our expertise. And when that happens, they're not listening to us in the same wa...
June 28, 2025

Decisionmakers Do Not Care About Your Services! (and That's OK if You Know What To Do)

Here’s an uncomfortable truth: Money and policy decisionmakers do not care about your services. This uncomfortable truth is a source of frustration for so many Nonprofit leaders, and it doesn't have to be. But we have to und...
June 22, 2025

The Most Powerful Thing Nonprofit Leaders Can Do Right Now to Preserve Medicaid and SNAP

The potential for massive cuts to Medicaid and SNAP moved one step closer to reality when the Senate voted its version of the big ugly bill out of committee. The good news is there are still quite a few hurdles to clear befor...
June 13, 2025

The Shortest Distance Between Where You Are Now and the Advocacy Results You Want

I have a really important question I want to ask you. How satisfied are you, really, with the advocacy results that you're currently getting? Chances are, you're frustrated with at least one of the money or policy decision ma...
June 6, 2025

How to Successfully Build Advocacy into Every Team Member's Role

I was on the road working with a client last week. And the CEO there asked me the most awesome question that I was super excited to answer. The minute we had the conversation, I knew it was one that we needed to have on the p...
June 1, 2025

Two Surefire Things You Can Do to Fix Your Messaging on the Fly

When you're in a conversation with a decisionmaker and it's not going the way you want, they're not engaging, they're not leaning in, or they're not getting what you need them to get. You can tell there's some kind of disconn...
May 24, 2025

How Nonprofit Leaders Can Help Save Medicaid

There is nothing more timely than the issue of saving Medicaid. We are in a moment of both extreme threat but also extreme opportunity. I know it would be very easy to think that there’s nothing we can do. That massive cuts t...