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.
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 MoreIssue 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.
Read MoreIssue 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.
Read MoreIssue 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.
Read MoreIssue 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.
Read MoreIssue 2879— March 23, 2026
An early morning check on social media led me to Liz Elting’s latest Forbes.com article, “Women Are Bypassing the Broken Rung. How Corporate America Can Keep Up.” I highly recommend it.
The “broken rung” was coined by McKinsey and Company. It was later published in book form by authors and McKinsey partners Larena Yee, Kweilin Ellingrud and Maria del Mar Martinez to describe what they say is even more pervasive than the glass ceiling as a barrier to women’s advancement in corporations.
Read MoreThe energy in the room was palpable, even after the previous evening’s taco and tequila night, and I was pumped for my keynote.
Three hundred ambitious women (yes, McKinsey, women are very ambitious) spanning a wide range of roles in technology, and a few male allies, met in San Diego March 10-12 at the WIT (Women in Technology) Network annual conference.
The theme, “Igniting Excellence: Rising Together, Leading Forward,” exudes the event’s upbeat ambiance. Congratulations to the organizers and especially to WIT Network’s CEO Christine Bongard and her team.
Read MoreIssue 2877— March 2, 2026
Women won eight of Team USA’s 12 gold medals at the Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina.
Two thirds of the gold!
That’s historic.
It’s even more remarkable when you realize that the first time women were allowed to compete in the Olympics was 1900, when there were 22 women and 241 men. The women were limited to five sports.
This year at the Winter Olympics, women made up 47% of the athletes.
Read MoreIssue 2876— February 23, 2026
Have you heard the saying that there are lies, damn lies, and statistics? One harmful statistic making the rounds is that women are leaving the workforce in droves.
That story is incomplete at best and misleading at worst. Hundreds of thousands of women have been pushed out of their jobs involuntarily. Other women have indeed chosen to leave the workplace that wasn’t working for them, but most of those haven’t stopped working.
Read MoreIssue 2875— February 17, 2026
I don’t believe a calendar flip magically changes human behavior.
But I do believe there are moments—collective and personal—when energy shifts and we get to decide whether we’ll meet it with resistance or take its energy to propel ourselves forward.
Happy Lunar New Year, the Year of the Fire Horse galloping in on February 17.
Read MoreIssue 2874— February 9, 2026
Lives there a woman who has not been told many times over, “Smile more.” And/or “Smile less.” Count yourself either lucky or oblivious if you said, “Me.”
This video posted by CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins got me going on the impossible Catch 22 that every woman lives in almost every aspect of life.
Read More
