This is why your gala barely pays off

Thank you, Micholas, for having me and I am very grateful for joining you on this podcast.

Yeah, so there was quite a trajectory. I so I started at Walt Disney World and that really it really it planted the seed in me to that I really wanted to I wanted in my career to build programs and work for f for places that continued to make families and children happy. So when I saw that, you know, at Walt Disney World, that that was the experience that I was creating through my work, that was what I wanted to continue to do through my career. And so it really planted that seed. And so when I left Walt Disney World, I ended up in the nonprofit space. And so I at first was obviously I was living in Florida at the time. And so my job after that I was I ended up at the early learning coalition in Osceola County, and that is where we drew down state and federal dollars to support. early education programs, so it would be like state funded pre-K programs in our county. And so that was something that I was responsible for managing the state funded early learning program dollars for like pre-K programs. So I did that and really thrived in that role for my remaining time while I w was living in Florida and then decided that I wanted to return to my home state of Washington where my family lived so my daughter could have an opportunity to meet her her family and That's what brought me back to Washington State, where I eventually I had an I had another job at a preschool of the arts, but that led me eventually to my role at the Snohomish County Music Project, where I started as a development director and then eventually was promoted to executive director.

I do believe that it was actually finding the the need within the community. So I think that it was literally we found what was happening at the time when I started at the music project was there was a couple different music programs that we were somewhat experimenting with to see what was going to be successful at the time and what at the time we had about one part-time music therapist who was traveling from Oregon State and then she was serving about 15 students at the time. So if you can imagine we, you know, she was traveling part-time. And if if I recall correctly, I believe that she had like one or two sessions per month. And so like we had just barely, you know, we were barely s had any music therapy programming, but it was rapidly catching on within the community. We also at the time we had after school music programs. So we had a couple different models of how we were going to implement music within the community because the charge of the the mission of the organization was that we utilize the dollars to implement music programs within the community. So so we were we were kind of experimenting as you would say with a couple different models and what I very quickly noticed was that there was a significant need for music therapy and a desire for music therapy. So it was growing rapidly and there was there was a significant need for that in the community. And so at that point it became a became a rapids it became r rapidly looking for the music therapists that could accommodate the need, the capacity.

The framework that I use now or the framework that I was using then?

Yeah, so Yeah, what what I do now is I work with executive directors and nonprofit organizations to help them to help them with their fundraising and so I do what I call fractional fundraising and that is where I can come in and provide senior level Fundraising services at the rate of a junior level, you know, basically without having to provide, you know, I do it basically from a remote location. So you do not have to provide space for me. I do it basically, you get a senior level person, you do not have to pay for the ramp up. you I come in and you see results within like the next one to two weeks, whereas with you when you have a new hire, you have to train them. And so it really takes a lot of time and effort that you're putting into really acclimating them to the position and your organization. and so you also have to pay them benefits. With me, you do not. There's a flat. fee that I request monthly. And so for a certain number of hours that or a you know a approximate number of of you know time that you get from me each month. So that is something that I work with clients on for I I have year long contracts for that. And that is something that is very successful with the clients that I work with because they are at a time right now where they're looking for ways that they can maximize their fundraising dollars and looking at ways that they can utilize development in different ways. How can they utilize, I mean, nonprofits are really looking at how they can utilize their staffing and their development dollars in different ways. And so this is one of them.

It really is based on this specific organization. So the first thing that we would do was would be to sit down and do a fundraising assessment. So we would go in and we would analyze all of the things that they're currently doing. So find out exactly what they currently have going on in their organization. so that is really it like auditing everything that they currently have in their organization. fundraising wise in their organization. So everything that they have. And then what I am really good at is identifying opportunities. So what gaps there are and what missed opportunities they have. So if there is an opportunity for individual giving, then I would be able to immediately identify that or a monthly monthly donor program. If they don't have that in place, then that's something that I would suggest. there is or sponsorships, if they are in a place to where they don't already have a corporate sponsorship program in place and they can, they're an organization that has a a strong likelihood to attract corporate sponsors, then that that might be something that I would suggest. So it's really dependent on what they're currently doing and what they what their current gaps are.

A lot of the clients that come to me, I think there is a big misconception that galas and events will make will will create the money that nonprofits are looking for. And this is something that I will always have conversations with nonprofits about because there is a big misconception. This is a repeated conversation that I tend to have. And a lot of times I will leaders, nonprofit leaders will ask me to to even talk with board members about this because I think there is a performative, you know, there's a performance type of need for for boards or you know, nonprofit nonprofits at times to feel that they have to have certain types of presentations to the communities. And at certain times there is. There is a definite performance performative need. but there When you are doing events and galas and things like that, you really need to be strategic about it because a lot of times the return on that investment is minimal. So that's something that I always have serious conversations and you want to think really strategically about what the goal of those events are, because a lot of times it it shouldn't be the the money per se, because the the output of the staff time and all of the costs associated with the events typically end up being, you know, high. And so you usually end up the return on it usually ends up being not as much as you would have hoped.

I yes. So the book is called and I am a contributing offer to women who lead volume two and basically my chapter is about burnout and it is really about it's it's about when I actually had a health crisis. And so it really goes into some detail about what happened to me when I was leading the Snohomish County Music Project in 2018 and went the path of least resistance for an eye exam and ended up being diagnosed with a brain tumor. And so that ended up throwing a big wrench in my plans for work, for life, for you know, everything that I was doing in that moment in my season. And so it talks about how it impacted me physically, mentally, and the outcome of the really the outcome of How I how I survived the brain tumor and how I am how it really created the person that you're talking to now. I'm an I'm a new person because of it, and I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. So it goes deep into why the the lessons that I've learned and the changes that I've made as a result. And you can you can buy my book on my website at wellbalancedce.

Yes. Okay, there I've got tons of advice around burdound.

Three. Okay. Great. Three things around burnout. I would say the first thing is to Block your calendar. So use time blocks on your calendar because that's and at the very beginning of the week. So at the very beginning of the week, you want to create time blocks on your calendar. And so you are prepared for the week for all of the things that you have. And within those time blocks, you want to have like time for you to focus. You also want to create like if you're bad at like doing things like taking lunch, then you want to create actual time blocks for you to take lunch and also time blocks for you to take breaks. So really working your calendar and then making sure that your that you that you accommodate how you manage your calendar. And then another thing I would say is utilizing your breath. A lot of times we don't think that there is a connection between our body and how we react. And so as leaders, what I talk about a lot is using, thinking a lot about what is going on in our body and then utilizing our breath. to calm ourselves and and thinking a lot about the the reactions that are happening inside our body and to document that and then to really notice you know the energy that we are draining on certain tasks and so I actually have a task and an energy task draining method that you can utilize to track how certain activities are really making you feel energetically. So throughout a process, you can take one day or a couple of days to really track how certain tasks are making you feel energetically. And then you can decide if you want to delegate, if you want to omit, if if there's something that are not even worth your time anymore. or if you want to how you want to manage those tasks better in your time and it's really how they make you feel energetically so that's another way and then also in your meetings in your team meetings having an introduction so before you know having an introductory time where everybody goes and takes a minute to talk about there to give a you know f a one minute like or not even one minute but just a you know give us you know how are you feeling right now so give us a breakdown everybody goes around the room and gives a breakdown of how they're feeling in that moment so that they can center themselves and get prepared for the meeting so those are a couple of ways that you can really try to get your team prepared, you prepared, and you know, a couple of small ways that you can try to center yourself and stay aligned.

I am found anywhere at Well Balanced CEO. So on Instagram, Facebook, my website is well balanced CEO and that's where every all of my stuff is.

Thank you so much, Micholas. It was great to meet you and to share everything about my my wonderful framework. So I hope you enjoy.