What Teachers and Fundraisers Can Teach Each Other About Burnout, Boundaries, and Being Human

Teachers and fundraisers may seem worlds apart—but underneath the surface, they're doing remarkably similar emotional work.

In this special podcast swap episode, Erin joins Betsy Burris, host of Teaching Through Emotions, for a wide-ranging conversation about the invisible emotional labor that comes with helping professions.

Together they explore burnout, people-pleasing, nervous system regulation, somatic awareness, the Enneagram, and why so many caring professionals end up sacrificing themselves in the name of serving others.

Whether you spend your days in classrooms, nonprofit organizations, hospitals, coaching practices, or any profession centered on helping people, this conversation offers a powerful reminder: the relationship you have with yourself shapes every relationship you have with others.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Why teaching and fundraising attract many of the same kinds of people.
• How people-pleasing can become an unconscious survival strategy.
• The difference between compassion and self-abandonment.
• Why burnout is often rooted in emotional patterns—not just workload.
• How somatic awareness helps us access wisdom beyond our thinking minds.
• The hidden cost of tying your worth to your performance.
• Why learning to feel your emotions creates more capacity to support others.
• A simple 90-second daily practice to begin reconnecting with yourself.

Connect with Betsy Burris

If this conversation resonated with you, be sure to check out Teaching Through Emotions, where Betsy helps teachers understand the emotional and relational dynamics that shape life in the classroom. Even if you're not an educator, you'll find practical wisdom for navigating relationships, emotions, and leadership with greater awareness.

Stay Connected

If you're enjoying The Brave & Balanced Fundraiser, subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and join The Brave & Balanced Note, my free newsletter filled with practical tools for emotional mastery, fundraising, and sustainable leadership.

I'd also love to hear what stood out to you from this conversation. Leave a review, share this episode with a colleague, or send it to someone in a helping profession who needs the reminder that taking care of themselves isn't selfish—it's essential.

Send Erin a text

Book your 1:1 Brave and Balanced Breakthrough Coaching Session here: https://calendly.com/vitalistcoaching/brave-balanced-breakthrough

✨ Stay Connected & Continue Your Fundraising Growth

Listen to all episodes + subscribe:
https://thebraveandbalancedfundraiser.buzzsprout.com

Join the community:
The Brave & Balanced Fundraiser Facebook Group
👉 https://www.facebook.com/groups/braveandbalancedfundraiser

Book a Brave & Balanced Breakthrough Call:
A personalized 1:1 session to support your inner clarity and fundraising wellbeing.
👉 https://calendly.com/vitalistcoaching/brave-balanced-breakthrough

Learn more about Erin’s coaching & nervous-system based support:
VitalistCoaching.com

Connect on Instagram:
@erinmcquadewright

How Your Words Can Make Donors Pull Away

Have you ever answered a simple question and then kept talking long after you'd already answered it?

Maybe you've explained your reasoning, then explained your explanation, then explained why you explained it in the first place. If so, you're not alone.

In this episode of The Brave & Balanced Fundraiser, Erin McQuade-Wright explores the hidden emotional and nervous-system dynamics behind over-explaining. What appears on the surface to be a communication habit is often something deeper: a fear of rejection, disapproval, misunderstanding, or not being enough.

Drawing on a recent experience in a group setting, Erin unpacks what happens when explanation turns into self-protection—and how this same pattern can show up in fundraising conversations, where too much talking can unintentionally push donors away.

You'll learn:

• Why over-explaining is often a nervous system response rather than a communication problem
• How fear of rejection can drive us to keep talking long after we've made our point
• What a donor taught Erin about the importance of leaving room for others to respond
• How over-explaining can crowd out connection and make people pull away
• A simple somatic practice for catching yourself when you're leaving your center and seeking approval

If you've ever found yourself talking faster, explaining more, or trying to convince someone to understand you, this episode offers a compassionate invitation to pause, breathe, and trust that your words can stand on their own.

In This Episode:

• The difference between explaining and over-explaining
• Why silence can feel uncomfortable
• The connection between over-explaining and self-worth
• How this pattern shows up in fundraising asks
• Learning to let your words land

A Question to Reflect On:

The next time you catch yourself over-explaining, ask:

"Am I speaking to inform, or am I speaking to seek safety?"

The answer might surprise you.

Subscribe to The Brave & Balanced Note for weekly reflections and practical tools to help you fundraise, lead, and live with more courage, clarity, and ease:

The Brave & Balanced Note

Send Erin a text

Book your 1:1 Brave and Balanced Breakthrough Coaching Session here: https://calendly.com/vitalistcoaching/brave-balanced-breakthrough

✨ Stay Connected & Continue Your Fundraising Growth

Listen to all episodes + subscribe:
https://thebraveandbalancedfundraiser.buzzsprout.com

Join the community:
The Brave & Balanced Fundraiser Facebook Group
👉 https://www.facebook.com/groups/braveandbalancedfundraiser

Book a Brave & Balanced Breakthrough Call:
A personalized 1:1 session to support your inner clarity and fundraising wellbeing.
👉 https://calendly.com/vitalistcoaching/brave-balanced-breakthrough

Learn more about Erin’s coaching & nervous-system based support:
VitalistCoaching.com

Connect on Instagram:
@erinmcquadewright

Why Moving Faster Isn't Always the Answer

What if the thing making you feel like you need to speed up is actually the thing asking you to slow down?

In this episode of The Brave & Balanced Fundraiser, Erin McQuade-Wright explores the hidden cost of living in a constant state of urgency. From fundraising campaigns and Giving Tuesday deadlines to overflowing inboxes and endless to-do lists, many nonprofit professionals have learned to operate as though every day is an emergency. But what happens when urgency becomes our default way of being?

Drawing on her own experience in fundraising leadership, Erin shares how chronic urgency can narrow our perspective, strain our relationships, disconnect us from our bodies, and ultimately make us less effective—not more.

You'll learn:

• Why urgency is a normal human response—but a dangerous long-term strategy
• How constant activation affects your nervous system, creativity, and decision-making
• The surprising reason reflection can feel uncomfortable when you're stuck in "go mode"
• Why many fundraisers feel guilty slowing down, even when they desperately need it
• Practical ways to pause, regulate, and respond more intentionally when everything feels urgent

Erin also shares insights from Mark Nepo's The Book of Awakening and reflects on the fundraising culture that often rewards exhaustion while overlooking sustainability.

If you've ever felt like you can't stop, can't rest, or can't slow down because there's simply too much to do, this episode is for you.

In This Episode:

• The difference between true urgency and chronic urgency
• How fundraising culture can normalize burnout
• Why post-campaign reflection is often the first thing to disappear—and the thing we need most
• The hidden belief that slowing down is irresponsible
• What it means to "slow down to go fast"

Journal Prompt:

Where in your life are you telling yourself, "I don't have time for that"?

Could that be the very thing your nervous system needs most?

Subscribe to The Brave & Balanced Note for weekly reflections and practical tools to help you fundraise, lead, and live with more steadiness and less stress:

The Brave & Balanced Note

Send Erin a text

Book your 1:1 Brave and Balanced Breakthrough Coaching Session here: https://calendly.com/vitalistcoaching/brave-balanced-breakthrough

✨ Stay Connected & Continue Your Fundraising Growth

Listen to all episodes + subscribe:
https://thebraveandbalancedfundraiser.buzzsprout.com

Join the community:
The Brave & Balanced Fundraiser Facebook Group
👉 https://www.facebook.com/groups/braveandbalancedfundraiser

Book a Brave & Balanced Breakthrough Call:
A personalized 1:1 session to support your inner clarity and fundraising wellbeing.
👉 https://calendly.com/vitalistcoaching/brave-balanced-breakthrough

Learn more about Erin’s coaching & nervous-system based support:
VitalistCoaching.com

Connect on Instagram:
@erinmcquadewright