Nursing the System

🎧 Episode Overview:

If you’re a high-achieving, impact-driven nurse who’s juggling ten different projects and wondering why you still feel stuck or overwhelmed, this episode is for you.

Today I’m talking about how ambition (yes, even the well-meaning kind) can quietly sabotage our impact. I’m walking you through the concept of leverage points from systems thinking and how applying this lens to your career, leadership, and daily work can help you stop spinning your wheels and start creating real change.

If you’re tired of doing all the things and ready to do the right things, let’s go.

🔑 In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• What systems thinking can teach you about working with less effort, more impact
• Why over-functioning is often a sign of misaligned ambition—not a lack of skill or discipline
• How to spot high-leverage activities in your day-to-day work (and what to cut)
• Why narrowing your focus actually builds your influence, visibility, and opportunities
• What happens when ambition becomes a bottleneck—for you and your team

🧠 Key Ideas to Take With You:

• You don’t need to do everything—you need to do the right things.
• Leverage isn’t lazy. It’s strategy.
• When people don’t know what you’re about, they can’t connect you to the right opportunities.
• Most change doesn’t require more energy—it requires better direction.

🎧 How to Get the Most Out of This Episode:

Listen with a recent “overwhelm moment” in mind. Maybe it’s a career decision, a leadership role, or a plate that’s feeling way too full. As I talk through over-functioning, leverage points, and strategic ambition, notice what hits close to home—and what might need to shift.

🛠️ Practical Actions You Can Take:

• Reflect: Where are you putting in more energy than the outcome is worth?
• Identify one high-leverage activity that could replace 2–3 low-return ones.
• Ask yourself: What do I want to be known for professionally? Is it clear to others?
• Take the Map Your Impact mini-course to clarify your position and determine your best next move

📣 Special Announcements:

💡 Map Your Impact is a 90-minute CEU-accredited course helps you assess your social power, your workplace expertise, and your best leverage points for creating meaningful change, without burning out.

🎁 Use code MYI10OFF to save $10 at checkout.

📩 Got questions or feedback? I’d love to hear from you. If something’s holding you back from joining MYI—or you want help thinking through your strategy—DM me anytime.

📲 Call to Action:

• Enroll in Map Your Impact (just $27 with the code)
• DM me @nursing.the.system to share where you’re over-functioning or stuck
• Share this episode with a nurse leader who’s overwhelmed and needs strategy

🎧 Episode Overview:

There’s a myth in healthcare that speaking up will get you shut down. And while it’s true that how your voice is received depends on power, politics, and identity...what I’ve seen again and again is this: You don’t get burned for speaking up. You get burned for speaking up without understanding your environment.

In this episode, I’m walking you through how to assess your position in your organization, what most workplaces actually value, and how to speak up in a way that aligns with your current level of social power and expertise. If you want to make change without constantly getting pushback, this one’s for you.

🔑 In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• Why your voice isn’t always received the same way—and how to shift your strategy without silencing yourself
• The difference between what you say and how and when you say it
• How to assess your social power and expertise in any workplace
• Why the smartest changemakers know when to wait and when to push
• A practical framework for deciding how to speak up based on your current position

🧠 Key Ideas to Take With You:

• Speaking up isn’t about confidence—it’s about strategy.
• You don’t have to be the loudest voice in the room to make an impact.
• Your social power and expertise determine how your ideas are received—learn to work with that, not against it.
• Systems don’t always reject ideas—they reject ideas delivered at the wrong time, in the wrong way.

🎧 How to Get the Most Out of This Episode:

Think of a time when you tried to speak up and it didn’t land the way you wanted. As you listen, reflect on how much social power and expertise you had in that moment—and whether your approach aligned with your position. This episode can help you self-correct without self-blame.

🛠️ Practical Actions You Can Take:

• Use the “social power + expertise” matrix to assess your current position at work
• Reflect: Are you approaching change from a one-size-fits-all strategy, or tailoring your approach based on your context?
• Take the Map Your Impact mini-course to identify your position and build a strategic plan
• Try the end-of-episode journaling prompt: Think of a time you spoke up and it didn’t land. What was off?

📣 Special Announcements:

✨ The doors to Change Maker Essentials are now closed for this cohort—but Map Your Impact is always open.

If you’re looking for a bite-sized but powerful resource that helps you lead smarter and advocate more effectively, Map Your Impact is the next best step.

Use code MYI10OFF at checkout to save $10.

📲 Call to Action:

• DM me on Instagram @nursing.the.system if you want help figuring out your social power + expertise score
• Share this episode with a colleague who’s feeling discouraged or unsure how to speak up
• Reflect on what your current position allows—and how to build toward the position you want

🎧 Episode Overview:

If you’ve ever found yourself paralyzed by indecision, whether it’s about applying for a new job, enrolling in a course, or saying yes to a leadership opportunity—this episode is for you.

I created the Aligned Action Audit after several powerful conversations with nurses on the CME waitlist. Many of them weren’t struggling with motivation, they were struggling with decision clarity. This tool will help you assess professional opportunities (big or small) in a way that’s grounded, strategic, and personal.

By the end of this episode, you'll have a framework you can return to again and again to make aligned career decisions with more confidence and less mental spiraling.

🔑 In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• How to use the Aligned Action Audit to evaluate any professional opportunity
• Why “vision fit” is more important than status or resume padding
• How to distinguish between a helpful stretch and an unsustainable strain
• What your hesitation might actually be trying to tell you
• Five final “gut check” questions I’d ask if I were coaching you directly

🧠 Key Ideas to Take With You:

• Not every growth opportunity is aligned growth.
• Capacity isn’t just about time—it’s about energy, logistics, and support.
• ROI isn’t always financial—sometimes momentum, clarity, or confidence is the most valuable return.
• Hesitation isn’t a red flag. It’s a yellow flag asking you to slow down and get curious.

🎧 How to Get the Most Out of This Episode:

Grab a journal or notebook and walk through the audit with a real decision you’re facing. Whether it’s CME or something else entirely, the clarity you’ll gain can help you take action with more intention and less overthinking.

🛠️ Practical Actions You Can Take:

• Use the 4-part Aligned Action Audit to assess your next big decision
• Reflect on which of the three hesitation types you tend to fall into
• Ask yourself: Is this a detour disguised as growth?
• Schedule a 15-minute lightning call with me if you're considering CME and need help deciding

📣 Special Announcements:

✨ The doors to Change Maker Essentials are officially OPEN!

Early action pricing ends Tuesday at midnight—save $300 by enrolling early.

💸 We also created a full funding guide PDF for you to send to your employer or HR rep. Many hospitals have PD budgets or tuition coverage, and this guide helps you make the case.

📲 Call to Action:

• the audio for this podcast was pulled from this video.
• Take the quiz to find your best-fit NTS resource if you’re unsure where to begin

🎧 Episode Overview:

This episode is a little heavier because I’m talking about something both personal and systemic: how we talk (and think) about big, broken problems like gun violence.

I’m walking you through three common myths that hold change makers back—not just around policy, but in our teams, organizations, and careers. These myths come from the broader Nine Change Myths framework I teach in Change Maker Essentials, and today we’re applying them to a real-world challenge so you can see how these patterns show up and how to think differently.

🔑 In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• Three common myths that get in the way of real change—and how to spot them
• How well-meaning people can unintentionally stall progress by falling into faulty logic
• Why motivation isn’t enough to make systems change
• What it actually takes to lead change (hint: it’s not just passion)
• How to start shifting thinking in your workplace or community

🧠 Key Ideas to Take With You:

• Believing there’s a single “right answer” often keeps us stuck
• Perfect rollouts don’t exist—iteration is where change really happens
• Motivation without know-how leads to burnout and stagnation
• Systems problems require systems thinking, not silver bullets

🎧 How to Get the Most Out of This Episode:

This episode blends real-world systems analysis with mindset reframing. Listen with your critical thinking cap on and consider where these myths might be showing up in your own work. If you feel stuck in your organization, this might give you language for why.

🛠️ Practical Actions You Can Take:

• Reflect on which of the three myths you hear most often in your team or org
• Use the scripts I share in the episode to interrupt faulty thinking with curiosity
• Identify one problem you’ve been over-complicating (or oversimplifying) and map out how you might prototype instead
• If you’re ready for deeper tools and strategy, join the CME waitlist and book a clarity call with me

📣 Special Announcements:

✨ The September cohort of Change Maker Essentials opens next week! Join the waitlist, to save $300 and access a free 15-minute 1:1 call with me.

📄 We also created a funding/business case PDF to help you request tuition or work-time approval from your employer. Use it—it’s effective, research-backed, and designed to advocate for you.

🚨 Not sure if CME is right for you? Take the quiz to find out!

🎧 Episode Overview:

This week’s episode is a peek behind the scenes. I’m walking you through how I’m rethinking the way we run and grow Nursing the System, especially how we launch Change Maker Essentials. It’s part systems lesson, part business reflection, and fully rooted in the idea that iteration is key to sustainability.

If you’ve ever wanted to launch something of your own, or if you’re just curious how I think about testing, prototyping, and scaling this work, come on in.

🔑 In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• How the concept of prototyping is shaping my business (and how it might help you too)
• What’s changing about how we enroll students in Change Maker Essentials this fall
• Ways nurses can access professional development funding (and how to ask for it)
• Why I built a quiz to help you find the right Nursing the System resource
• What I’m doing to make this a high-trust, high-integrity space in a low-trust online landscape

🧠 Key Ideas to Take With You:

• You don’t need to do it perfectly—you just need to get it into the world and iterate.
• If your work isn’t evolving, it’s not growing.
• It’s your right to access professional development funding—don’t leave money on the table.
• Systems thinking isn’t just for healthcare. It’s a lens that helps you approach business, career, and life with intention.

🛠️ Practical Actions You Can Take:

• Take the new Nursing the System Quiz to find your best-fit resource
• Join the Change Maker Essentials Waitlist to book a free 15-minute clarity call with me

📣 Special Announcements:

📄 Need help getting CME funded? Use the business case PDF to advocate for tuition or work-time coverage.

📲 Call to Action:

• Subscribe to the pod if you haven’t already
• DM me @nursing.the.system if you want help requesting CME funding—I’m happy to support!

🎧 Episode Overview:

This episode was inspired by a DM I got from a nurse named Jessica, who asked about a topic I don’t hear discussed nearly enough: followership. We talk a lot about leadership in nursing—and for good reason—but we rarely explore what it means to be a great follower.

In this episode, I’m diving into how following is actually a critical leadership skill, what it looks like to move between leading and following in real-world changemaking, and how honoring the work that came before us makes us more effective (and less overwhelmed) systems thinkers.

🔑 In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• Why we need to reframe followership as an active and essential component of leadership
• How I think about leadership and followership as a dance, not a hierarchy
• What Picasso, cave paintings, and John Green taught me about systems change
• How to assess whether it’s your moment to lead—or your moment to follow
• The six key habits that make someone an effective follower in a change ecosystem

🧠 Key Ideas to Take With You:

• Systems change is the work of generations. You don’t have to invent it—you just have to move it forward.
• Leadership and followership are not opposites. They’re both skills every changemaker needs.
• You don’t have to be in charge to lead change—you just have to know when and how to step up.
• Being an effective follower is about curiosity, discernment, humility, and action.

🎧 How to Get the Most Out of This Episode:

Listen with an open mind about your own role in change. Whether you identify more as a “leader” or “supporter,” this episode will challenge you to think differently about what it means to contribute meaningfully to a team—and a system.

🛠️ Practical Actions You Can Take:

• Ask yourself: “Where in my work am I trying to invent when I could connect to what’s already been done?”
• Identify one place this week where you can follow strategically—whether by stepping back, supporting someone else’s idea, or conserving your energy.
• Reflect on who in your workplace has expertise you can amplify, not overshadow.
• Use the six followership habits I outline (escalation, amplification, collaboration, humility, resilience, and systems thinking) to evaluate where you might grow.
• Get curious about your current change ecosystem and the role you naturally play within it.

📣 Special Announcements:

✨ Changemaker Essentials opens soon for the September cohort! If you’re interested in systems thinking, strategic leadership, and practical tools for real-world change—join the waitlist.

🎓 Want a great starting point? Take the Map Your Impact mini-course. Use code MYI10OFF for $10 off.

👉 Resources Mentioned:

• Map Your Impact mini-course
• Change Maker Essentials
• The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green
• The Lascaux Cave Paintings (L-A-S-C-A-U-X—look them up!)

🎧 Episode Overview:

This episode is a little different. I didn’t plan it. I didn’t prep it. I sat down on my lunch break in the middle of a very real, very messy Tuesday and hit record. Because I was overwhelmed and I remembered that I built a tool inside Changemaker Essentials specifically for moments like this.

So I decided to walk myself through the framework I teach for navigating overwhelm and regaining clarity when your brain feels like it’s short-circuiting. I talk through the mental chatter, the reality of my workload, and what it looks like to pause, reassess, and make a plan that actually feels doable.

If you’re juggling a lot and feel like you might snap, this one’s for you.

🔑 In This Episode, I Talk Through:

• What overwhelm really is (and why it’s not just about time)
• The three levers we can pull to manage it: raise resources, reduce demands, or reassess reality
• Why I treat my own brain like a system to be supported
• The real difference between perception and reality when we’re maxed out
• How I used a 4-step tool from Changemaker Essentials to go from spiraling to grounded in 30 minutes

🧠 A Few Mindset Shifts You’ll Hear:

• Overwhelm isn’t always a problem to fix—sometimes it’s a cue to pause and assess
• Resilience means working with your limits, not pretending you don’t have any
• The project plan didn’t fail—you just didn’t know what life was going to throw at you
• There’s no shame in revising timelines when your circumstances change
• Sometimes the bravest thing you can do is admit: “I need to stop and re-plan”

🛠️ Practical Steps You Can Try This Week:

• Do a commitment audit: What can you pause, delegate, or deprioritize right now?
• Try a brain dump and organize your tasks by priority and dependency
• Time block the rest of your week based on what’s truly essential
• Communicate your capacity clearly to others—whether that’s your team or your friends
• Protect your restorative routines (like workouts or quiet time), especially during crunch seasons

📣 Curious About the Tool I Used?

The 4-step overwhelm activity I walked through is straight from the Change Maker Essentials curriculum. It’s a framework I return to over and over again—and if you found it helpful, you’ll love the rest of the program.

✨ Join the waitlist here: Change Maker Essentials Waitlist

Enrollment opens in September—and you’ll be the first to know when it does.

📲 Let’s Stay Connected:

• Feeling overwhelmed right now? DM me and let me know what your first next step is
• Love this kind of behind-the-scenes honesty? Let me know in a podcast review, your words help the show reach more nurse change-makers like you

🎧 Episode Overview:

This week’s episode is inspired by a DM I received from a nursing faculty member who said, “I want to set the nursing world on fire—but I don’t know where to start.” If that resonates with you, you’re not alone.

Whether you’re a student, an educator, or a practicing nurse, if you know you want to make change but don’t yet know what your contribution will look like—this episode is for you. I’m walking you through why you don’t need a perfectly defined mission to get started, and I’m offering real, strategic steps you can take today to begin building your changemaker skillset.

Oh—and if you hear some rustling or meowing in the background, that’s Poppy the cat. She’s joining us for this episode too.

🔑 In This Episode, I Share:

• Why clarity comes after action—not before it
• How to use your current job as your changemaker training ground
• The personal story behind my own uncertain beginnings in nursing and systems work
• Why building skills (not chasing credentials) is the fastest path to clarity
• How to choose a first change project that’s motivating and manageable
• A behind-the-scenes look at how I approach leadership, personal mastery, and team development

🧠 My Hope for You After This Episode:

• You feel permission to start before you’re ready
• You see your current role—whatever it is—as fertile ground for change
• You understand the power of starting small and learning as you go
• You’re reminded that your energy, interests, and growth matter just as much as the outcomes you’re driving

🛠️ Try This:

• Make a list of “things that tug at your heart” at work—then look for patterns
• Set up one conversation this week with a colleague to learn more about their challenges
• Reflect on what kind of changemaker you want to be—not just what you want to fix
• Identify one tiny process, frustration, or pattern you can explore more deeply
• Don’t default into another degree or certification out of uncertainty—build real skills instead

🧭 Want Help Figuring Out Where to Start?

✨ Map Your Impact is my actionable mini-course designed to help you identify where you sit in your organization's change ecosystem—and exactly what behaviors to focus on to build momentum.

🎧 As a podcast listener, use code MYI10OFF to get $10 off:

👉 Enroll in Map Your Impact

📣 Want to Go Deeper?

If you're ready for 12 weeks of strategic skill building, professional growth, and systems-level thinking, check out Changemaker Essentials. It’s my foundational program for nurses who want to lead change with clarity and confidence. Applications open again soon!

📲 Let’s Stay in Conversation:

• DM me on Instagram @nursingthe.system and tell me:
• 👉 What’s one small step you’re taking this week to get in the sandbox?
• Enjoying the podcast? Leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen. It helps more nurses find this work and start their own changemaker journey.
• Have an idea or question for a future episode? Send me a message—I love hearing from you.

🎧 Episode Overview:

We’re back—and not exactly how I imagined. My summer sabbatical didn’t go the way I planned. I got sick, lost energy, and had to put a lot of things on pause. But the time away gave me unexpected clarity. In this episode, I’m reflecting on a post I shared at the start of the yearand I’m revisiting what’s held true, what’s shifted, and how I’m applying (or re-learning) those lessons now.

This is a vulnerable one. If you’ve been navigating your own version of plans-gone-sideways, I hope it offers something grounding and real.

🔑 In This Episode, You’ll Hear Me Reflect On:

• How I’m still learning to hold my vision tightly but my plans loosely
• The way illness forced me to rethink productivity and capacity
• Why I believe in piloting—even when things don’t go the way I hoped
• What actually happened with Nurse Leader HQ (and why we pushed the launch)
• How I think about investing in support—and why sometimes not hiring help is the right move

🧠 A Few Things I’m Taking With Me:

• A clear vision doesn’t need a rigid plan.
• Just because an opportunity is exciting doesn’t mean it’s sustainable.
• Your gut is a valid data source—especially when it comes to collaborators.
• Piloting is not a failure. It’s a wise way forward.
• Growth doesn’t always require new investments—it sometimes looks like honoring past ones.

🎧 How to Get the Most Out of This Episode:

Treat this episode like a check-in—with me, and maybe with yourself too. What intentions did you set at the beginning of the year? What’s changed? What do you want the rest of 2025 to feel like?

🛠️ Try This:

• Revisit your goals: Are you being flexible with the how?
• Scan your calendar: Are your “yeses” energizing you—or draining you?
• If you’re stuck waiting for perfect conditions, could you try piloting instead?
• Ask yourself: Am I listening to my gut—or trying to be liked?
• Have you already invested in support? Are you actually using it?

📣 A Quick Update:

Nurse Leader HQ is still coming—just not on the original timeline. We’re pushing the launch to December so we can build something even stronger. If you want to be the first to know when applications reopen, the link will be in the show notes soon.

📲 Let’s Stay Connected:

• Loved this reflection? Send it to a friend who needs to hear it.
• Leave a quick review to help other nurse leaders find the show.
• Want to read the original Instagram post I reflect on in this episode? Click here.
• DM me your thoughts—I’m back online and I’ve missed chatting with you!

🎙 We’re Taking a Summer Sabbatical (But Here’s What’s Coming)

🎧 Episode Overview:

This is a quick update to let you know what’s happening behind the scenes at Nursing the System and what’s coming your way this fall. After 6 months of showing up every week with new episodes, Taylor and I are taking a short sabbatical to rest, realign, and focus on some exciting projects we’re building for you. In this episode, I’m sharing why we’re pressing pause, what we’ll be working on this summer, and how you can stay connected while we’re on break.

📣 Special Announcements:

☀️ We’ll be back July 21st with fresh new episodes

📌 The How to Be a Systems Thinker workshop returns in August

🧠 Changemaker Essentials Fall Cohort kicks off in September

📣 Nurse Leader HQ second cohort begins in December

(If you’re interested in NLHQ and haven’t taken CME, now’s your time!)

📲 Call to Action:

• 🎧 Catch up on past episodes from the archive
• 📥 Join the System Sunday email list for weekly summer lessons
• 🔐 Sign up for The Changemaker Case Files private podcast
• 🎓 Take Map Your Impact to discover your next best move
• 💬 Follow me on Instagram @nursing.the.system for summer updates