So something that was really stressful starting out, uh, ended up being something that has now kind of driven me forward.

I am Shannon Foucault.

I am a director of development at California Rangeland Trust, and I have been in fundraising for more than 20 years now.

I've been thinking a lot lately about a pivotable moment in my career when I was moving from middle management to, uh, leadership in fundraising, and I was second-guessing myself.

I was trying to have all the information and be able to move into the role as an expert, but I had an amazing AFP mentor at the time, and he really helped me to visualize where I wanted to go with my career, who I wanted to be.

And I mean, it was a simple just, "Do you wanna be a big fish in a big pond or a big fish in a small pond?" And really kind of understand the work that I could do, what I could accomplish, what influence I could have, and enabled me to see that I didn't need to have all the answers.

I had a network of people that I could call up and ask the questions and do what I needed to do, and it enabled me to move into a leadership role.

So that's my story.