The Monthly Leap - October 2025
Hi there!
Before I wrote this newsletter, I sat down and sketched out my October schedule and oooo boy. Buckle up. It’s going to be a busy one! While I always say I’d rather be busy than bored, the amount of travel the last few months, combined with a heavy class load and a full client roster, has made for a lot of late nights and early mornings. But I wouldn’t have it any other way!
Per usual in our monthly newsletters, keep reading to find out:
What's on my mind: Spend time doing what you love
What's coming up: Lots of time on the road this month!
A tip of the month: Get out and have more conversations
A quick request: Share this with a friend
I hope this email is a little spot of joy in your month!
Rikki
What's on my mind?
I spoke at an amazing event a few weeks ago about “spending time doing what you love.” Obviously, we’re all going to have to do things that we don’t enjoy. It’s part of life. But I think a lot about how we can maximize doing more of what we do enjoy.
As mentioned at the start of this email, we’ve got a lot going on both personally and professionally at LEAP. But because I prioritize spending my time and energy on things that fill my cup – things that bring me joy and have high impact on my community – the busy schedule usually feels more energizing than overwhelming. That’s not to say that there aren’t days when I feel completely buried. There are lots of those days lately. But there are even more days when I flew from one thing to another and ended the day feeling fulfilled.
Part of what I think is so powerful about cataloging what brings you joy and energy is that it’s different for every person.
For some of you, public speaking makes you want to crawl into a hole and cry. But for me, any day that I get to get up in a room full of people and talk about our work is a good day.
Those of you who would prefer to just put your head down at your desk and crank out work might be surprised to hear that if I have too many days in a row of that, I feel super drained. So I make sure to sprinkle in coworking sessions, virtual networking meetings, and the occasional last-minute happy hour with a nonprofit friend to keep my energy up. And when I do find myself with an afternoon free of meetings where I can just focus on one project? That one afternoon feels great. It just wouldn’t feel great day after day to me.
So today, I encourage you to think about how you’re spending your time.
Are there things that you do that absolutely drain you but might energize someone else on your team? Can you delegate even one task you dread to someone who would get genuine joy out of it? Can you let go of the guilt of not doing something that doesn’t bring you joy and also doesn’t really make an impact for your organization?
What's coming up?
As I’ve mentioned, October is going to be wild!
We kick off the month with one of our favorite fundraisers of the year – Portage County Historical Society’s Lagers & Laggers event. It’s sold out already but I mention it here because it’s such a perfect example of an organization creating a mission-aligned special event that raises money, helps people understand what they actually do, and draws in a new audience. We’re proud to sponsor the event and put in a lot of hours behind the scenes to help plan for an amazing evening full of good beer, delicious food, and lots of plaid and flannel.
I’ll be traveling to attend conferences, committee meetings, board trainings, and staff planning workshops for several of my clients this month. I love getting to be on-site with clients to see their work in action! While much of our work can be done virtually, there’s nothing quite like being in a room with people and feeling the energy.
I’m thrilled to be presenting at this year’s Women Trailblazers Conference at the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point on the idea of living authentically and aligning your life with your values and purpose. This will be my third time attending this conference and it’s one of my favorite days of the year. This year, the entire LEAP team will be in attendance which is extra special.
I’m also doing an encore presentation of my popular workshop The SMARTEST Way to Create a Development Plan for the Wisconsin InterFaith in Action Network’s annual conference. There’s a recording of this presentation on our website if you want to check it out! We also have several development planning sessions scheduled this month with individual organizations. If you want us to help you create your plan, reach out now to get on the calendar before the end of the year.
As I’ve mentioned before, we’re changing up how we do client trainings and in 2026. To get started on that early, we’re offering a FREE webinar on October 28 to help you make a last-minute year-end fundraising plan. Register here!
Looking ahead to November, we’ll be kicking off the University of Wisconsin Green Bay Nonprofit Network Executive Coaching program. This program is designed for executive directors who are looking for an opportunity to connect with peers, get access to personalized coaching, and simply dive into their leadership style so they can serve their organizations.
Tip of the month
Hopefully, you joined us as part of our October Missions Conversations Challenge. If not, I’d still encourage you to take time this month to intentionally share about your organization with at least a handful of people. Far too often, we overthink who we should talk to about our work. The reality is that talking to anyone is better than talking to no one. So get out and have more conversations about your work!
A Quick Request
I have a goal to grow our email list pretty dramatically before the end of the year. If you receive our emails and/or read our blog, and believe our content would be valuable to someone else, would you be willing to encourage them to sign up for our list?