Clair and Rachel explore Bruce Lee’s famous quote, “Be water, my friend,” and how it applies to leadership, adaptability, and emotional resilience. The conversation dives into what it means to stay flexible without losing form — to move with change rather than against it — especially in high-pressure or uncertain environments.

Together they unpack:

• Fluid leadership — how adaptability and boundaries can coexist.
• Resilience through softness — why strength isn’t rigidity, but responsiveness.
• Flow in action — tools for recognizing when to push, when to pause, and when to pivot.
• Cultural and emotional lessons from Bruce Lee’s philosophy as applied to modern workplaces.

The takeaway? Water is powerful not because it resists, but because it moves — and that’s the art of sustainable leadership.

Action Item:

Where in your life are you being asked to “be water”? Where could you use more fluidity (and strength)?

Share your reflections or flow stories with us at [email protected]

Keep Soaring with Additional Resources:

• Dragonhood's Thunder of Dragons Ecomap: map your people, places, and anchors for when the water gets rough
• Buy mentioned books from our Bookshop.org shop!  Emotional Agility: Get Unstuck, Embrace Change, and Thrive in Work and Life by Susan David
• Where "Be Water, My Friend" originated: Tao of Jeet Kune Do by Bruce Lee
• Harvard Business Review's "5 Principles to Guide Adaptive Leadership"
• The Power of the Pause
• The Pivot Year
• SHIFT
• Sign up for Dragonhood Coaching or any of our other services!

Saying “yes” often feels like the right thing to do—being a team player, stepping up, helping out. But automatic yeses can cost us time, focus, and energy. In this episode, Rachel and Clair explore better ways to say yes (and no) using three practices: curiosity, connection, and prioritization lenses.

Together we talk about how to pause before responding, how to support others without overloading yourself, and how to align your yeses with what truly matters.

This week’s takeaway: you don’t have to choose between clarity and connection—say yes wisely, not reflexively.

Action Item:

What’s one curiosity question, one connection, or one lens you’ll try this week?

Keep Soaring with Additional Resources:

• Working Genius assessment, part of our transformative Dragon Dossier toolkit.
• Listen to the Chronic Apologizing episode for my easy swaps at work!
• Paid memberships have access to webinar recordings (both video and audio here on the podcast stream). Join today! Listen to The Balancing Act episode for more great information!

Double, double, toil and trouble… or just powerful women being themselves? Join Clair and Rachel as we reimagine the wicked witch and uncover why her story still casts such a long spell.

Why are so many powerful women in our stories cast as villains? From fairy-tale stepmothers and cartoon witches to Baba Yaga herself, we dig into how culture punishes female autonomy, why the “ugly = evil” trope is so sticky, and what modern re-tellings are doing to complicate the narrative.

We talk about how these stories shaped us, why witches remain magnetic figures of independence and rule-breaking, and what it means to rewrite the endings.

This week’s takeaway: notice the shorthand, expand your bookshelf, and let characters—and people—be more than two boxes.

Action Item:

We’d love to hear the witch stories you grew up with—and which characters you were most drawn to. Share your reflections with us at [email protected] or in the comments.

Keep Soaring with Additional Resources:

• The Thursday Murder Club series by Richard Osman
• In Defense of Witches: The Legacy of the Witch Hunts and Why Women Are Still on Trial by Mona Chollet
• From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life by Arthur C. Brooks
• Maleficent movie (2014)

In this episode, hosts Rachel Inabinet and Clair Poletti reimagine leadership through the lens of curiosity. Instead of focusing on always having the answers, they emphasize the transformative power of small questions. Thoughtful, everyday questions can deepen trust, spark creativity, and shift workplace culture in ways that grand strategies often cannot.

Action Item:

Pick one small, curious question to ask this week — in a meeting, with a friend, or even yourself.

Keep Soaring with Additional Resources:

• Buy the book! The Big Book of Beautiful Questions by Warren Berger
• Sign up for Dragonhood Coaching or any of our other services! https://www.dragonhood.world

In this episode of Here Be Dragons, your favorite Dragons, Rachel Inabinet and Clair Poletti, explore the radical power of rest in a culture that glorifies hustle and burnout. From personal reflections to practical strategies, they unpack how pausing intentionally can fuel creativity, strengthen leadership, and model a healthier way forward. Rest isn’t a reward — it’s resistance.

Action Item:

Think of your dream rest activity if money, time, and guilt weren’t factors.

Keep Soaring with Additional Resources:

• Previous conversations referenced include our Sunday Serenity episodes, our Sunday Serenity video compilation, and our paid memberships to get the archive of any of our webinars in our Member Webinar Library.
• The effectiveness of micro-breaks, as referenced in this NIH study.
• Elizabeth Gilbert's Letters from Love Substack.

New Season, Fresh Guests!

What does it really look like to live with full authenticity? To stay curious, lead with acceptance, and take up space like you belong there?

In this episode, we talk with someone who lives the Dragonhood mantra out loud. Donald reminds us what it means to awaken your inner dragon—and live boldly, bravely, and fully you.

Our guest: Donald C. Shorter Jr., is an educator, an artist, and a "queer artist committed to glitching the system."

Action Item:

Think of one part of the Dragonhood mantra and how you connect to it.

Keep Soaring with Additional Resources:

• Discover more about Donald
• Join our thunder of Dragons at the Dragonhood

Clair and Rachel chat with the first unofficial Dragonhood graduate, Katie Roberts! In this conversation, they chat about the benefits of coaching and how their lives have changed since embracing the core Dragonhood concepts.

Action Item:

Think about environments where you find yourself shrinking. Notice those moments so you can practice taking up some of the room in those same spaces.

Keep Soaring with Additional Resources:

• Dragonhood coaching and other services
• Working Genius
• Dawna MacLean, Conscious Living Coach and Founder of Agents of Way

Clair and Rachel explore how glimmers, or small acts of positive interaction, can affect our lives. Listen as they chat about the power of Emotional Intelligence and micro-moments in leadership and work life.

Action Item:

How will you practice creating glimmers? What small steps will you take to create a more connected and authentic environment in the spaces you share with others?

Keep Soaring with Additional Resources:

• Soul Science
• Richard Branson
• Emotional Intelligence Network
• Gary Vaynerchuk
• Amer Nizamuddin
• Kim Scott
• If you missed our webinar, check out Little Moments, Big Impact: Building Psychological Safety and Supporting Inclusivity

Do you find yourself apologizing excessively, especially at work? Clair and Rachel dive into why we do this and explore alternatives. Take control, take up your space, and stop saying sorry!

Action Item:

How will you practice stopping yourself from apologizing? Any replacement phrase(s) you want to try?

Keep Soaring with Additional Resources:

• Agents of Way
• Sign up for Dragonhood Coaching or any of our other services! https://www.dragonhood.world

Clair and Rachel discuss the importance of all types of rest and finding your center. In Part Two, they continue the conversation by exploring the Dragonhood Sunday Serenity series.

Action Item:

How will you start practicing rest in your life? Try one new type of rest this week!

Keep Soaring with Additional Resources:

• Visit our curated Sunday Serenity page!
• Buy the book! The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership by Diana Chapman, Kaley Klemp, and Jim Dethmer
• Psychology Today article on the Seven Kinds of Rest
• Dr. David Rock and his thoughts on neuroleadership: https://davidrock.net/
• Octavia Spencer's inspirational account: @octaviaspencer
• Sign up for Dragonhood Coaching or any of our other services! https://www.dragonhood.world