Issue 2891 -July 3, 2026

Tonight, approximately 1,000 people are walking into Madison Square Garden for what is being called the American royal wedding. Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are getting married. In New York City. On the Fourth of July weekend. Because why not now and why not there?

I wasn't invited. You probably weren't either. But I've been thinking about Taylor Swift for over a decade now, and tonight feels like a moment worth marking — not just for the celebrity spectacle of it, but for what this woman's arc actually means.

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Issue 2890 -June 29, 2026

In 2006, I happened to be in Italy when they won the soccer World Cup. I thought I was going to lose my life as the streets filled with revelers wildly hooting and hollering and hugging anyone in sight. That experience helped prepare me for the current World Cup fever.

Because we all love an underdog-to-victory story, tiny Cape Verde has captured more than its share of attention, mine included.

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Issue 2889 -June 22, 2026

I’d wanted to go to Greece for years.

So when my friend Jamia Wilson invited me to a writer’s retreat she was co-facilitating with Narrative Healing founder Lisa Weinert on the beautiful island of Kythera, I enthusiastically signed up.

Kythera is famous for its beaches and mountains, its honey and curative herbs—and as the birthplace of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, desire, and beauty.

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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. 

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Issue 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.

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Issue 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.

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Issue 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.

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Issue 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.

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Issue 2883— April 28, 2026

Full disclosure: I'm still listening to Emma Grede’s new and already bestselling book, Start With Yourself. Haven't finished it. But I've heard enough — and watched the Internet melt down enough — to start the conversation now. More posts will follow.

Emma Grede grew up poor in East London, dropped out of school at 15, is openly dyslexic, and built a $400 million empire starting with unpaid internships (which she thinks there should be more of) and sheer will, for which she thanks the challenges of her early life.

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Issue 2882— April 21, 2026

We saw the best and the worst happening for women in this world recently.  

Both of these events brought us together as a community, even as a nation.  

One brought us together in joy and optimism. The other, in outrage and disgust.  

The spacecraft Artemis II captured the world’s attention during its April 1-11 flight. Perhaps like you, I was captivated as I watched Christina Koch become the first woman to journey around the moon—and own it.  

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Issue 2881— April 13, 2026

We were speeding along from Arizona to Michigan in my husband’s red Ferrari in the summer of 1986.

He got four tickets. I was reading Margaret Atwood’s all-too-prescient book, The Handmaid’s Tale and trying not to notice the speedometer.

Ironically, 1986, the year The Handmaid’s Tale was published in the US portending the stripping away of women’s rights, was the start of the three-year celebration of the 200th anniversary of the United States Constitution. 

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Issue 2880— March 31, 2026

You can find inspiration in the most unlikely places.

Like this little part of a cherry tree, determined to show its springtime blossoms despite having broken limbs and growing in a trash heap in the midst of a suburban train station under construction.

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