52. Become an Embodied Fundraiser: Fundraising and Storytelling from the Inside Out with Tania Bhattacharyya

Tania Bhattacharyya, Founder of Lumos Marketing, has built her practice around empowering female leaders and their brands. She highlights the many ways that we have it within us to confront and transform the historic and systemic structures that hold us back by owning and telling our story differently. 

As Tania learned through her years of work at a nonprofit supporting women and families impacted by substance abuse, our stories are transgenerational and deeply embedded. In this episode, she reminds us that we can recover our voices and understand the fears and insecurities that mute our agency. It just takes work – much of it interior. 

Much of our conversation centered around a set of concepts that are central to fully articulating our own stories. Tania believes that once we understand and challenge the narratives that shape us individually, as well as our organizations, we can, at last, embody and persuasively communicate our mission to the outside world. Getting there, however, often means breaking down some barriers. We discuss the derailing impacts of Imposter Syndrome, which can paralyze us with self-limiting beliefs and negativity. Our “inner critics” also work hard to bury past traumas, diminishing or dismissing our wounding. And what happens to those trapped toxins? Well, the body knows. Beyond intellectually processing the sum of our lived experience, which always accompanies us to whatever table, we must also do the somatic work necessary to unblock internalized experiences that do not serve. 

This episode ultimately is a celebration of community and our ability to support one another. Fundraising can be lonely, isolating, and demoralizing. That’s why it’s up to us to remove shame, open communication, reclaim our narratives and assert the value we bring to the table. Tania is all about shifting the balance by helping us learn to be the authors of our own stories, in all their vulnerability and authenticity. As she points out: “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”

To learn more about how to be an embodied and authentic fundraiser, check out my Power Partners Formula and register for a masterclass here.