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“Grieving An Avalanche of Emotions” A Professional Ice Climber Shares How Motherhood Irrevocably Changed Her Career — Episode #212 with Majka Burhardt
Majka Burhardt is a professional climber and twin mom. The depth of emotions she felt when balancing career and motherhood was a challenge, as she dealt with the restrictions to her professional life, an avalanche of feelings, and learning how to let go of her desire for control.
How to Think About Leadership During Times of Crisis
A leadership framework to guide how to show up for your team, community, and customers during times of crisis.
Context Switching Between “Parent” and “Professional” Modes Can Be Exhausting — Vanessa Van Edwards Can Help
One of the hardest things to do as a parent is switch back and forth into professional mode. It turns out that you can project confidence and charisma through specific skills, and I took a deep dive with best-selling author Vanessa Van Edwards on how to switch into professional mode to let your expertise and confidence shine through, even after a tiring day of parenting.
WWC Is Back! Our Community to Support Women in Leadership — Episode #186
The Wise Women’s Council is back and accepting enrollments for our Class of 2022. We only open once per year for enrollment, so whether you’ve been a longtime listener or a brand-new listener, check out our leadership incubator and community for executive, entrepreneurial moms navigating both life and business at the same time.
Creating Outrage As A Marketing Strategy
Over the last week, the internet has popped up loads of articles about influencers behaving badly—in one case, the queen of relatability and toxic positivity shared casual, demeaning remarks about her hired help, then offered a non-apology that involved throwing her own team under the bus, then deleted the bad posts, and—wait for it, I’m sure within the next few days, tears will be next. There will be tears, and a public apology (a “real” one), and a vow to do better. It strikes me that this is strategic, because we’ve seen this playbook before. It’s a marketing strategy, and you’re being played.
Cassandra Speaks: Women and Our Right to A New Form of Power
It’s time we talked about what power looks like for women, and how we claim our right to power—specifically a new feminine form of power. For centuries, we’ve told men’s stories, and we’ve told stories about masculine power. That power looks like power over other people, like strength, coercion, domination, and defeat. Women have fought for years to do all the things that men have done, Elizabeth Lesser writes—to vote, to lead, to have sex, to lead universities and companies and societies, to have babies, to leave the house, to leave marriages. But it’s time to move into a new form and vision of power. Here’s what it might look like.
We Need Women’s Leadership Now, More Than Ever
We need your leadership from where you are—as you are. We’ve known for a long time that we need much more diverse leadership, that we need women’s leadership, and that we need new models of power. As Elizabeth Lesser says, we need to embrace “power to,” not just “power over.” We need truth telling, and we need new visions. We need you, your work, and your brave new thinking. We need you to show up. We need you to be who you really are, not what an archaic model of power and “leadership” tells you to be. Take care, take the rest you need, take action, and show up. Even and especially as you are.
Areas of Control: A Coaching Practice (Plus, Something To Look Forward To) — Episode #172
In a year with a pandemic, wildfires, the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and more, it can be easy to fall into despair, sadness, or anger. Even if you’re reading this years from now, things can go wrong—and they often do. People pass on, projects go under, businesses are forced to change. Part of the work of being human is reconciling with all that is beyond our control. Here’s a practical exercise to understand what’s within your control, and how to use it.
Navigating Hard Conversations — Episode #159 with Sharon Stolt
Think of a difficult conversation that you are in the middle of, or one that you’ve recently had. Maybe it’s onboarding a new team member, or working with a client. Maybe it’s with your partner or your spouse, and you’re trying to negotiate all those logistics of parenting. Maybe it’s with the grandparents, your kids, your boss, a colleague—whoever it is, I am sure that you have had the experience of how challenging it can be to go through a hard conversation. Today on the podcast, we get to have Sharon Stolt join us to teach us what to do and how to start the art of having challenging and uncomfortable conversations.
Setting Boundaries and Saying No: A Simple Phrase You Can Use Everywhere — Episode #142
What do you do when you’re feeling overwhelmed with invitations and requests? Setting boundaries and saying no can feel impossible and get the best of us stuck. Well, I’ve got five words for you, and you can use them to say no simply, easily, and cleanly in almost any situation. Yup, it’s a script for you to use—steal these words and keep them in your back pocket for the future.
Leaning Into the Power of Sisterhood, Personal Leadership, and How Sharing Changes Shame — Episode #069 With Nisha Moodley
Nisha Moodley came to understand the power of sisterhood by accident. Since then, Nisha’s work has come to focus on the power of women in groups.
Masterminds, Creative Risks and the Fuck It List — Episode #053 With Alex Jamieson
If you’re having trouble identifying your strengths and values, Alex Jamieson has your back. The creator of The Fuck It List, she flips the script and guides you in replacing the bad stuff in your life with a positive alternative, crafting a life focused on what you truly care about.
Hiring People Who Are the Right Fit — Episode #039 With Val Geisler
How can you be sure you’re hiring the right person? Or that you really want to work with a particular client, for that matter? Val Geisler shares her learnings (and past mistakes) when it comes to client and employee connection.
Overthrowing the Patriarchy — Episode #023 With Sarah Lacy of Chairman Mom
40% of American households believe that it is bad for society if mothers work. Because sexism is a global phenomenon, you might believe this statistic to be universal as well—but it just isn’t. In fact, this kind of maternal bias against women in the workplace is a strictly American phenomenon. Diverse cultures from deeply feminist Iceland to ‘one-child policy’ China simply do not have stay-at-home moms. This interview with Pando Daily founder Sarah Lacy looks at how this staggering statistic manifests itself in the our culture, from the wage gap to maternity leave policy to overt sexism on the job. I ask her about the need to dismantle the patriarchy and her experience of maternal bias in the workplace.
Core Value #10 | Culture Change Starts With Stories
Stories are the first part of culture change. In order to create a new future, part of the process is unearthing all of the stories of what’s happened, and what’s happening. So much of the stories of motherhood and parenting are hidden or silenced, not public. To change the narrative of motherhood, we need to start by first telling the stories of what motherhood looks like, from a place of truth, honesty, and compassion.
How We Fail Our Friends The Most
There is one thing that has disappointed me more about motherhood that I’ve been struggling to to put into words. It reveals the cracks and the gaps in the way we’ve built our society, in the way we culture, in the way we show up for each other.
“Just You Wait!”
Why do people constantly caution you about what’s about to get worse? In one of the parenting groups I’m in, we started having a discussion about the phrase we always hear: “Just you wait.”
What Can You Love About Right Now?
Last summer,...
The Story Behind “Startup Pregnant”
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