No. 22 - IT'S NOT JUST YOU 🫶🏽

IT’S NOT JUST YOU 🫶🏽 

October 22, 2025 • Issue No. 22

Earlier this month, Fortune Magazine set up shop in D.C. to host their annual convening of women in business. The MPW (Most Powerful Women) Summit agenda includes morning SoulCycle rides and roundtable chats with the women at the helm of Fortune 500 companies and institutions like Ulta, pharma-giant GSK, and Spelman College. Kamala Harris, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and Selena Gomez also shared advice. If this sounds up-your-alley, the bad news is that MPW membership is invite-only. The good news is that pretty much everything besides the workouts and the networking dinners is streamed.

You can watch the talks on YouTube, which is where I found a conversation between Diane Brady, Executive Editorial Director of Forbes, and famed writer and researcher Brené Brown that packs a lot of wisdom into less than a half hour (and has given me a lot to think about.)

Brené went viral in 2010 with her Tedx Talk “The Power of Vulnerability” and has published an unending stream of books about courage, vulnerability, and leadership including best-sellers like Dare to Lead and Atlas of the Heart. I often recommend her research to my clients and graduate students and I quote her ‘Clear is kind, unclear is unkind,’ incessantly. To me, part of her success has been her ability to simplify (see: clear is kind) and articulate what everyone’s thinking and feeling in a way that erases, or at least reduces, shame. This ability was on full display during her MPW panel.

I’ve heard countless stories from friends and clients about trouble sleeping, trouble tuning in during meetings, and lack of passion for some of their favorite things during downtime. No matter how we contort our minds to try to stick to the schedule, our bodies can’t hide the fear and uncertainty we’re living through.

Brown goes on to offer advice about how to navigate uncertainty and how to respond to urgent issues with a clear head.

She boils this down further with the suggestion that we ‘create space between stimulus and response’. There is an urge to create certainty by responding to stimuli immediately: the idea that keeping my email inbox at zero is proof that I’m a problem-solver, that offering the first solution I can think of is better than asking for time to think, that if I move fast enough I can outrun conflict or disappointment. It’s tempting to play whac-a-mole and bop all my problems on the nose as soon as they surface, but it’s also exhausting and unsustainable.

I’m happy to hear that I’m not the only one getting hard feedback from my body in the face of today’s uncertainty, but Brown’s solution is something I need to keep thinking about (and I invite you to join me!) Here’s what I’m still circling on: How can I create space between stimulus and response while maintaining the necessary level of responsiveness/reliability, urgency, and control?

If you have 27 minutes to spare, I’d suggest watching/listening to Brown and Brady’s full conversation which also covers Brown’s thoughts on AI and snapshots some research from her newest book.

P.S. Do you know someone else who needs to hear this? 💕 Share this newsletter with a friend.

💎 Enjoyed this newsletter? Forward it to a friend!