Reflections

A one-week deal to cook all my own meals started as a way to control portions and ingredients—and became an unexpected lesson in self-leadership, boundaries, and shared care for millennial leaders balancing multiple roles at once.

There’s a particular discomfort in recognizing yourself inside a system being critiqued. Watching The Pitt made that unavoidable. Charting that creates harm, patients choosing between debt and care, executives showing up only to manage risk—I’ve lived inside these dynamics. Even with insurance, I delay care because a $4,000 deductible is real. This isn’t about villainizing administration. It’s about naming what gets lost when systems speak louder than people.

Last Monday I walked into a women in business event expecting ease and familiarity — the kind of belonging that makes sense on paper. Instead, I felt tense, distracted, and oddly out of place. Nothing was wrong with the room or the people in it, yet my body knew something didn’t align. This post is about sitting with that discomfort, not fixing it — and what it taught me about belonging, transition, and giving myself permission to keep looking.

Time isn’t a healer or a thief on its own. It can blur memory, distort distance, and lull us into waiting. What matters is how we use our moments—choosing presence, action, and meaning instead of assuming time will do the work for us.

Difficult conversations are unavoidable, but they don’t have to be destructive. They can become turning points for growth when approached with awareness, honesty, and self-regulation. Many of us weren’t raised with calm communication; defensiveness or shutdown may have felt normal. Learning to notice our emotional triggers and stay present can reshape how we relate to ourselves and others. In leadership and professional settings, emotional intelligence helps us recognize wha

A podcasting mishap turned into a lesson in resilience and authenticity. When a recording glitch triggered imposter syndrome, I learned that mistakes don’t define us—they teach us. From testing equipment to embracing imperfection, this story is a reminder that even failures can move your creative journey forward.

Grief is complex but it's also one of the best life lessons we navigate as it looks different for everyone.

On Thursday night I attended the 10-year anniversary celebration for an organization in Pittsburgh called Steel Smiling. It reminded me why we should never lose sight of those we impact, those we serve, and those who feel every ripple of every step we take. Change takes courage, but it is necessary and can be as simple as the first stone in the pond that creates a ripple. A quote that inspired the founder of Steel Smiling put it best: “If you always do what you’ve always don

We often may fixate on how to answer a question correctly, but have you ever stopped to think about the power in asking the right question instead?

Travel can teach us a lot about ourselves and I've been all over the last 10-15 years so I'm ready to slow down and take this island time mentality home with me.

Remember when I wrote about the impact the book "Good Morning, Monster" had on me? I couldn't stop thinking about it and on that long drive from Pittsburgh to Nashville, I decided I was going to email Dr. Gildiner, take a long shot and ask if she'd join the Motivation N'at podcast. Three weeks later I was shocked to see a response in my inbox. I knew the odds were slim that it would be a resounding yes, after all, Motivation N'at is still a baby, just 20ish episodes in, about

We bought our current house a little over a year ago. I was working full time for the federal government and still completely remote but traveling a ton, so one of our first priorities was to set up my home office. I don't know about you, but I'm a little particular with my arrangements, ironic for someone also known to reorganize her rooms every 4-5 months because they just "feel off". We shuffled things in, my giant standing desk, a cabinet, a book shelf and my dad's old a

This weekend, Josh and I took a quick hop, skip, and jump to our main street area to partake in a local shopping event where the small businesses in town were highlighted and offered some snacks and refreshments along with some discounts on their products. We should have walked, as we're a half mile at most from most of the stores, but it was raining, and my left leg hasn't been cooperating much with me lately. So I asked Josh to drive and he was happy to. We turned off the m

I have only reread three books in my life. I tend to inhale what I'm reading and move to the next and then go on a six-month hiatus where...

Perspective can change at any time, including during your personal and professional growth journey, the question is, will you embrace it when it happens?