Here Be Dragons

Halloween may be the best holiday (don’t @ us!) but this conversation goes beyond costumes, candy, and spooky decorations.

Rachel and Clair explore Halloween as a “wonderful disruption” of ordinary adult life: a night when being playful, theatrical, creative, extra, and unapologetically enthusiastic is not merely accepted but encouraged.

They discuss the invisible rulebook of adulthood, why so many of us stop experimenting, and how costumes can give us a lower-stakes way to explore confidence, glamour, humor, courage, and other qualities we may suppress in everyday life. They also reflect on childhood holiday experiences, the freedom to choose new traditions as adults, the creative community of cosplay, and the unexpected way Halloween brings neighbors together.

Ultimately, the episode asks a larger question: Why should we reserve this much joy, imagination, and permission for one day a year?

Come for the costumes and candy. Stay for the reminder that play isn’t childish, joy doesn’t have to be earned, and you don’t have to wait until October 31 to find your thing, share your enthusiasm, or let another version of yourself come out to play.

Action Item:

Choose one activity you would ordinarily dismiss as unnecessary, frivolous, embarrassing, or something you are “not good at.”

Then do it anyway. Do it for the joy and the experience!

Signature Takeaway

Please consider this podcast your permission slip to do fun things.

Listener Call

What is your “thing”—the interest, activity, character, craft, or delight that makes you light up?

Tell us about it at [email protected], or tag Dragonhood in the playful thing you decide to try.

Keep Soaring with Additional Resources:

• Playful by Cas Holman
• Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. with Christopher Vaughan
• Lifelong Kindergarten by Mitchel Resnick
• The Art of Cosplay and Creative Makeup by Chris Peck and Rainbowskinz
• The Power of Fun: How To Feel Alive Again by Catherine Price
• Our Sunday Serenity series
• Sign up for Dragonhood Coaching or any of our other services! https://www.dragonhood.world

Enjoy a Halloween re-release of our Wicked Witches episode, originally aired October 28, 2025!

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)

What does it actually mean to feel seen?

In this episode, Rachel and Clair explore the difference between attention, recognition, and true understanding, and why being noticed is not always the same as feeling known.

Sometimes we want recognition. Sometimes we want privacy. And sometimes the urge to say “Please do not perceive me right now” has less to do with avoiding connection and more to do with being exhausted from explaining, translating, or performing a version of ourselves that other people can easily understand.

Together, Rachel and Clair look at how our desire for visibility changes depending on our capacity, trust, stakes, and desire for connection. They also explore what being accurately seen can look like in friendship, leadership, and virtual spaces—and why curiosity can be more powerful than confidently assuming we already understand someone.

Because being really seen doesn’t require being completely exposed. It means having enough room to remain complex.

Action Item:

Notice the difference between being looked at and being understood.

Pay attention to where you feel free to be complex, where you find yourself performing, and where you may be making assumptions about someone else based on only part of their story.

Then try one small shift:

Trade certainty for curiosity.

What do you wish people understood about you without requiring you to explain it perfectly?

We’d love to hear your reflections. Email us at [email protected] or share your thoughts using #HereBeDragons.

Keep Soaring with Additional Resources:

• How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen by David Brooks
• Happy Place by Emily Henry
• Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain
• To view our webinar on Virtual Networking and other exclusive webinar videos, become a member!
• Sign up for Dragonhood Coaching or any of our other services! https://www.dragonhood.world

Related Here Be Dragons episodes:

• Better Ways to Say Yes and No
• Dragonhood Graduate
• The Power of Small Questions

Be authentic. Be curious. Be accepting. Take up space. Awaken your inner dragon.

This is the continuation of Dolly the Dragon, Part One. Listen now to catch up before diving in.

What if becoming more fully yourself isn’t about resolving your contradictions, but making room for all of them?

In the Season 3 premiere of Here Be Dragons, Rachel and Clair honor Dolly Parton by looking beyond the milestones of her extraordinary career and toward the lessons found in how she lived. Through stories about her early self-belief, her departure from The Porter Wagoner Show, the publishing rights to “I Will Always Love You,” Dollywood, the Imagination Library, and her deeply practical generosity, they return to one of Dragonhood’s central reframes: two things can be true.

You can be confident and nervous. Grateful and ready to leave. Kind and boundaried. Ambitious and generous. Rooted in where you came from and determined to build something new.

Whether you’re learning to trust yourself before the world catches up, protect the value of what you’ve created, or use your own success to create opportunity for others, this episode is an invitation to replace either/or with and—and to keep becoming more fully yourself.

Action Item:

Where could your skills and compassion come together to create meaningful action?

Where are you treating two parts of yourself as contradictions when they might both be true?

Share your thoughts with us at [email protected] or join the conversation using #HereBeDragons.

Keep Soaring with Additional Resources:

• Dolly Parton: Here I Am (2019)
• Dolly Parton: A MusiCares Tribute (2021)
• Steel Magnolias
• 9 to 5 (1980)
• Dolly Parton's Imagination Library
• Buy the book! Dream More: Celebrate the Dreamer in You by Dolly Parton
• Buy the book! Run, Rose, Run by Dolly Parton & James Patterson

Related Here Be Dragons episodes:

• The Power of AND
• Make Room: The Practice of Letting Go
• Second Acts: The Art of Becoming
• Better Ways to Say Yes and No

What if becoming more fully yourself isn’t about resolving your contradictions, but making room for all of them?

In the Season 3 premiere of Here Be Dragons, Rachel and Clair honor Dolly Parton by looking beyond the milestones of her extraordinary career and toward the lessons found in how she lived. Through stories about her early self-belief, her departure from The Porter Wagoner Show, the publishing rights to “I Will Always Love You,” Dollywood, the Imagination Library, and her deeply practical generosity, they return to one of Dragonhood’s central reframes: two things can be true.

You can be confident and nervous. Grateful and ready to leave. Kind and boundaried. Ambitious and generous. Rooted in where you came from and determined to build something new.

Whether you’re learning to trust yourself before the world catches up, protect the value of what you’ve created, or use your own success to create opportunity for others, this episode is an invitation to replace either/or with and—and to keep becoming more fully yourself.

Stay tuned for Part Two!

Action Item:

Where could your skills and compassion come together to create meaningful action?

Where are you treating two parts of yourself as contradictions when they might both be true?

Share your thoughts with us at [email protected] or join the conversation using #HereBeDragons.

Keep Soaring with Additional Resources:

• Dolly Parton: Here I Am (2019)
• Dolly Parton: A MusiCares Tribute (2021)
• Steel Magnolias
• 9 to 5 (1980)
• Dolly Parton's Imagination Library
• Buy the book! Dream More: Celebrate the Dreamer in You by Dolly Parton
• Buy the book! Run, Rose, Run by Dolly Parton & James Patterson

Related Here Be Dragons episodes:

• The Power of AND
• Make Room: The Practice of Letting Go
• Second Acts: The Art of Becoming
• Better Ways to Say Yes and No

Originally released June 28, 2024.

Clair and Rachel discuss the power of the word “AND” - and how that means we open ourselves up to more possibilities. We grant ourselves the capacity to acknowledge all of the incredible things we’re already doing while avoiding toxic positivity.

Action Item:

Is there something that is currently an “or” that can be an “and” for you?

Keep Soaring with Additional Resources:

• Buy the book! Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras
• Buy the book! The Lightmaker's Manifesto: How to Work for Change without Losing Your Joy by Karen Walrond
• Buy the book! Radiant Rebellion: Reclaim Aging, Practice Joy, and Raise a Little Hell by Karen Walrond
• Concept of “And” credited to Jim Collins: https://www.jimcollins.com/concepts/genius-of-the-and.html
• Dawna MacLean, Conscious Living Coach and Founder of Agents of Way: https://www.agentsofway.com
• Jack Gilbert, “A Brief for the Defense:” https://wordsfortheyear.com/2016/02/18/a-brief-for-the-defense-by-jack-gilbert/

In this deeply validating and practical episode, Rachel Inabinet and Clair Poletti explore the quiet, often invisible work of navigating the world with a brain that’s carrying a lot. Whether it’s neurodivergence, hormonal shifts, stress, or simply modern life, they unpack the power of tiny supports and gentle systems that make daily functioning more possible and more humane.

The conversation highlights:

• Why traditional productivity systems fail and who they leave out
• Gentle systems vs. rigid structures: designing support that works with your brain, not against it
• Tiny supports as “practical magic:” cues, rituals, and micro-adjustments that reduce friction
• Shame vs. support: moving from self-judgment to self-compassion
• Leadership implications: how teams and organizations can better support diverse brains

This episode is both a permission slip and a toolkit: you don’t need more discipline, rather, you need better support.

Reflection Prompts:

1. Where are you still using shame in places where support might work better?
2. What’s one small system or cue that genuinely helps your brain function better?
3. What’s one thing you could make easier instead of harder this week?
4. What support have you resisted because you thought you “shouldn’t need it?”

Keep Soaring with Additional Resources:

• Buy the book! ADHD, Unpacked by Alex Connor & James Brown
• Buy the book! How to Keep House While Drowning by KC Davis LPC
• Buy the book! How to ADHD by Jessica McCabe
• Sign up for Dragonhood Coaching or any of our other services! https://www.dragonhood.world

What if the storm has already passed — but you’re still bracing for it?

In this episode, Rachel and Clair explore what they call “storm mode” — that state of heightened awareness where we’re scanning, preparing, anticipating, and holding everything together. It’s an intelligent, necessary response to uncertainty and change… but one that isn’t meant to last forever.

Together, they unpack what storm mode looks like in our thoughts, bodies, and behaviors, why it can quietly become our baseline, and how to recognize when it’s time to stand down. From the subtle cost of prolonged vigilance to the practice of recalibrating your energy, this conversation offers a more sustainable way to care without carrying everything at full intensity.

Whether you’re navigating personal stress, leadership demands, or the constant hum of the world around you, this episode is an invitation to soften your stance, release the brace, and return to steadier ground.

Action Item:

What would it look like to care deeply without staying in constant vigilance?

Keep Soaring with Additional Resources:

• The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk
• Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily & Amelia Nagoski
• Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mere Mortals by Oliver Burkeman
• Sign up for Dragonhood Coaching or any of our other services! https://www.dragonhood.world

Listener Call

We’d love to hear your reflections: [email protected]

#HereBeDragons

What if letting go isn’t about loss but about making room?

In this episode, Rachel and Clair explore the quiet, often complicated practice of release: not just letting go of what’s broken or obviously misaligned, but of what is still good, still useful, and still meaningful, yet no longer true for who we are in this season.

Together, they unpack the tension between usefulness and alignment, the role of gratitude in releasing without rejection, and the unexpected clarity that space can create. From physical belongings to emotional patterns, identities, and expectations, this conversation invites a more compassionate way of letting go — one that honors what has been while creating room for what’s next.

Whether you’re clearing a closet, shifting a role, or rethinking a version of yourself, this episode offers a gentle reminder:

Making room isn’t about having less. It’s about creating space for what matters now.

Action Items:

• What’s something in your life that still makes sense on paper, but doesn’t feel true anymore?
• What would it look like to thank something — and then let it go?
• Where have you created space and noticed something new emerge?
• What are you holding onto that isn’t a thing — but is still taking up space?

Keep Soaring with Additional Resources:

• Essentialism by Greg McKeown
• The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
• Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman
• Dragonhood paid memberships have access to the Founder Message Library, a compilation of A Time of Dragons (reflections on releasing “shoulds”)
• Sign up for Dragonhood Coaching or any of our other services! https://www.dragonhood.world

In this episode, Rachel and Clair explore strategic restraint — the practice of intentionally narrowing focus, conserving energy, and resisting the pressure to respond to everything. Not as disengagement, but as a leadership skill rooted in clarity, alignment, and care.

Together, they unpack why hustle culture confuses busyness with effectiveness, how “less is more” only works when it’s chosen on purpose, and what it looks like to lead — and live — without burning yourself out in the process.

Whether you’re navigating leadership, creative work, caregiving, or simply feeling stretched thin, this conversation invites you to rethink effort, redefine impact, and practice restraint as an act of integrity.

Action Item:

What would it look like to do less, but with more intention?

Keep Soaring with Additional Resources:

1. Dragonhood Empowerment Coaching to equip yourself with the skills to practice strategic restraint
2. Shop our Bookshop.org store for inspirational reads!