Messy Hair, A Spontaneous Loom Video, and 10 Women
A few weeks ago, I had a crazy idea.
I wanted to get together as many high-achieving women as I could. Women at the top of their game. Women in my city. Women throughout my virtual network. Women who were done competing with one another and done viewing success from a scarcity mindset.
Then I sent it to 10 women I know.
I decided this would be invitation-only. The only way to get into the room would be through another woman who had received an invite.
And what happened stunned me.
Those 10 women quickly turned into 20. Then 30. Then 50. Then 70. Women I did not know started reaching out, saying, “Hey, I hear you’re doing a gathering, and I want to be part of it.”
My heart swelled. And I realized something I had suspected but had never seen proven so clearly: there is a deep, unmet need for strong, high-achieving women to get together and talk honestly about the realities of our situation and to offer support.
Yesterday morning, 19 of those women showed up in a room together. And we got honest about seven experiences that high-achieving women often face but rarely name out loud.
➡️ The Backstory Tax. The cost of spending 45 minutes on context before you can get to the conversation you actually need.
➡️ The Cheerleader Problem. When what you need is someone to poke holes in your plan, but what you get is “you’ve got this.”
➡️ The Proximity Trap. Professional friendships that go quiet when the context changes.
➡️ The Always On Problem. Leading in a fishbowl where you cannot have a bad day.
➡️ The Ambition Edit. Dialing back what you want because you already know how it will be received.
➡️ The Impact Conundrum. Carrying an impact that has not yet found the right timing, people, or confidence to come to life.
➡️ The Confidence Question. Your confidence is quietly eroding because you have been making tough calls alone.
As I watched the women in the room connect, I thought about how necessary this room actually is for high-achieving women.
And it proved to me once again that:
We are there to lift each other up and see how far we can help one another rise.
I don't know exactly where this is going. But I know that I want to be one of the voices calling attention, bringing awareness, and creating support for women who have so much to give and yet face so many challenging realities.
I also want to be fair: I know that men face challenging workforce realities too. As a former C-suite HR leader, I understand that deeply. My focus on women here isn't to diminish those challenges. It's simply to acknowledge them from a first-person perspective and do what little I can to address them and support the women who are living these challenges right now.
🤏TINY TWEEK Challenge
You just read seven signs. Odds are good that at least one of them landed.
Hold onto that one for a second.
Now think about who else in your world might be carrying one of the seven signs. You probably already have someone in mind. You've seen it in the way she talks about work, or in what she doesn't say.
Send her a message this week.
Not to fix anything. Just to let her know you see it. Because success is a team sport, and sometimes the smallest move is making sure another woman knows she is not carrying it alone.
