Speaking Engagement

Speaking Engagement

The Readiness Gap

Why preparing for a hard conversation isn't the same as being ready for it

Mallory Erickson's avatar
Mallory Erickson
Sep 22, 2026
∙ Paid

Think about the last conversation you were dreading. The one where the stakes felt high, where you cared about the outcome and about the person on the other side of it, and where you genuinely weren’t sure how it was going to go.

Most of us do one of two things with a conversation like that.

We rehearse it, meaning that we run it in our heads on the drive…

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Mallory Erickson's avatar
A guest post by
Mallory Erickson
Executive coach, fundraising consultant, and creator of the Power Partners Formula™. Author of What the Fundraising and host of the podcast by the same name. Founder of Practivated. She's helped 100,000+ fundraisers raise more without burning out.
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