Issue 2888— June 16, 2026
I’m not much of a sports fan.
My family would say I barely endure the sports obsession some of them have. While they hoot and holler, I’m reading my book.
But I watched this interview clip of NY Knick’s’ Jalen Brunson over and over.
What I see in him is something that can’t be taught as a skill set. But it can be nurtured as a mindset.
Read MoreYou can trust a handful of people in your life—maybe—and they might include your mom, sister, best friend, college roommate, partner. Add Minda Harts to that special list. Trust me on that one.
Award-winning, best-selling author, consultant, filmmaker, global trust keynote speaker, equity specialist and workplace communications expert Harts is building trust everywhere she goes with her latest book, Talk To Me Nice: The Seven Trust Languages For A Better Workplace.
She will be sharing her trustworthy insight as a speaker at Take The Lead’s Power Up Conference 2026 August 26 in Washington, D.C.
Read MoreBy Kendall Cherry
A few months ago, I found myself sitting in an Uber next to Gloria Feldt.
If you're not familiar with Gloria, she's a legendary women's advocate who led Planned Parenthood through some of its most pivotal years and has spent decades helping women step into positions of power and influence.
Read More“We are carrying the baton of history,” says Kelsey Nicole Nelson, award-winning sports journalist, branding specialist, college instructor, entrepreneur, role model, activist, nationally renowned speaker and host of Take The Lead’s Power Up Conference on Women’s Equality Day, August 26.
“I’ve always felt the role of journalist is to tell the story,” says Nelson, who recently founded her branding and communications firm, Kryptiann, where she is founder and CEO. She was awarded 2025 Young Entrepreneur of the Year by the DC Chamber of Commerce.
Read MoreIssue 2887— June 1, 2026
In the run up to Take The Lead’s Power Up Conference, I’ve been doing a number of media interviews.
Conference participants often remark how much they appreciate the diversity of our conference attendees. Age across multiple generations is one of those aspects of diversity we often don’t talk about.
Yet we have so much to learn from each other across the generations. In fact, one young woman who plans to come to the conference said just that to me recently when I demurred that one of my ideas might not resonate with her generation.
Read MoreThe future is literally female.
Women are the majority of workers in what a new report from The 75 Million defines as the top 10 occupations in the U.S. through 2034.
Healthcare workers and software developers –affected enormously by the advancement of AI-- are the two most needed sector of employees, with dramatic ranges of gender and pay disparities in those arenas as well as all 10.
Take The Lead’s Power Up Conference 2026 on Women’s Equality Day, August 26, features experts and leaders directly addressing the latest trends and shifts including those in women’s healthcare as well as how women are using AI as a strategy to problem solve and adapt to an evolving workforce.
Learn more about Power Up Conference here.
Read MoreIssue 2886— May 26, 2026
Novelist Jane Smiley observed that pregnancy is the most public of private conditions.
Smiley captures the paradox of the maternal experience. While the physical, emotional, and psychological journey of gestation is intensely intimate and internal, a pregnant woman's body inherently becomes the subject of public observation, societal commentary, workplace policy, and political debate.
Today, that public condition is more often observed about women who are not pregnant or child rearing.
Read MoreThe necessity of claiming truth and the courage to speak out and act is what corrects history and shapes the present and future.
Kimberle Williams Crenshaw proudly proclaims that she comes from a long line of backtalkers. These are women who refuse to not speak up, out and against injustice and discrimination carried out by people and systems that need to change.
The bestselling Black author, lawyer, feminist, activist, professor of law at the University of California and Columbia Law School, as well as co-founder and executive director of the African American Policy Forum, told a crowd recently at the Chicago Humanities Festival, that speaking and writing truth is her right, her power and her calling.
Read MoreIssue 2885— May 19, 2026
Say it, Emma Grede 🔥.
I love your book, Start With Yourself. Love the title, the concepts in it for the most part, your brash and decisive way.
[Catch up on my thoughts about Emma and the book if you have a mind to, before you plunge into this conversation with myself. The two prequels to this post are here and here.]
Or feel free to start here, with yourself, as Emma would advise and as I am doing.
Read More“Every human being has a compelling story to tell.”
Padma Lakshmi, 55, international best-selling author, Emmy-award nominated host of “Top Chef” and creator of the James Beard-award winning show, “Taste The Nation,” told the audience at the recent Chicago Humanities festival, “For many of us, we don’t see our story told. Unearthing true stories is all we can do.”
Read MoreIt’s not about who is wearing what, the state of media or the future of retail. It is about gender and power, and the different ways to use and misuse it.
Raking in $233 million internationally in its first opening weekend, and the No. 1 movie globally, “The Devil Wears Prada 2” is a movie by women, for women, starring women and diving into how women treat each other on their career rises and falls with men mostly making the final decisions on careers. All of this at a time that is treacherous for the current economy as AI reshapes how every job is performed.
And the women are watching.
Read MoreIssue 2884— May 4, 2026
The weirdest thing happened last Thursday.
At the end of a long and intense day, I was listening to the audiobook of Emma Grede’s New York Times bestselling book, Start With Yourself, while absent mindedly treating myself to salted caramel gelato. I’ll bet you’ve had days like that.
With Emma’s lilting British accented voice in my ears, I glanced at my email. What I saw shocked me.
The email was from Emma, thanking me for my likes and shares, soliciting further input and engagement especially around wealth building tools. This strange confluence of voice and message from someone I’ve never met but have been thinking a lot about (see last week’s post) was eerie.
Read More
