A Life Worth Living With Non-Profit Fundraising Expert Ellen Bristol

In this Inspirational People interview on the Share Life podcast, I'm speaking with Ellen Bristol, a non-profit fundraising guru and founder of the Bristol Strategy Group! Ellen and I originally connected when Hubspot referred Ellen my way for updating her Hubspot website. We've stayed in touch over the years and she even wrote a recommendation for my book for small business owners.

In this delightful conversation, Ellen shares her story, including her windy road into entrepreneurship, the different dynamics she explores with her non-profit coaching clients, and the ways she's led the charge in transforming how the non-profit world thinks about and acts around money. This terrific conversation brings out the deep wisdom Ellen has collected over her eight decades on this wonderful blue planet.

Listen or watch this discussion below!

Discussion Highlights

• Ellen's early journey into entrepreneurship and starting a business at 50 years of age
• The second wave of feminism and the opportunities in the early emerging technology space
• The power of establishing rapport and the dynamics of rejection
• Ellen's recovery from workaholism
• The toxic legacy of financial excellence in the non-profit world
• Reduce anxiety about fundraising by building relationships
• The decrepitude fund
• What Ellen would tell her 39-year-old self
• Not being afraid to fail
• Learning from your best donors
• Thoughts after experiencing decades of crises
• How the climate crisis frames how Ellen sees conflicts
• How to navigate cynicism and nihilism
• Living a sustainable life
• Insights on grieving and how we shield ourselves from it by being angry
• Recognizing how much agency we have in life
• Embracing our dependency and community in the midst of autonomy
• Ellen's love of Charles Dickens' work and her favorite book of his
• The positive impact of Ellen's piano teacher
• The counter-intuitive nature of freedom
• Leveraging technology to build powerful systems
• The story behind Ellen's elephant batik