In My Civic Era: Women, Civic Leadership & Local Government

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If you have ever built a habit, stuck with it for two weeks, and then watched it completely fall apart the moment life got hard, this episode is for you.

Monica Packer is a certified habits and identity coach, host of the top-rated About Progress podcast, and a recovering perfectionist who figured out why the habit advice we have all been given was never actually built for women's lives. Her book Sticky Habits comes out this fall and friend, I cannot wait for you to read it.

We talk about why the self-help and habit world is largely built on a masculine framework that ignores the reality of women's lives — the interruptions, the invisible labor, the unpredictable seasons. We talk about what to do when your routines completely fall apart. Why being bad at something is actually the point. And Monica's do something list — the simplest, most underrated identity tool I have heard in a long time.

We also get into my Gary Vee era, the ER visit that ended it, and why hustle culture advice almost took me out completely.

Habits are helpers. They work for you. You don't work for them. And by the end of this episode you are going to feel that in a completely different way.

Find Monica at aboutprogress.com and everywhere podcasts are available. Sticky Habits is available for pre-order so snag it now. 

In My Civic Era is the civic playbook for women leaving their community better than they found it, hosted by Ashley Price.

Read the deeper dives on Substack: https://civicera.substack.com/
Join the Well Lived Society membership, where I teach you how to set up your life so you have room to lead: Join Here
Know a woman who should be in the room? Send her this episode.
Leave a review. It's the fastest way to help other women find the show.

I will never tell you how to vote. I just want you to walk in prepared.

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51% of CHROs say leadership development is their top priority in 2026 — and most organizations are still handing women a generic webinar and calling it done.

In this episode, Lemon Price breaks down a five-pillar framework for women who are done waiting to be developed and are ready to build their own system. From knowing what you're actually building toward, to finding the right community, to stewarding your whole self — this is leadership development as a whole-life practice, not just a work thing.

If you're ready to stop waiting and start building, this one's for you.

In My Civic Era is the civic playbook for women leaving their community better than they found it, hosted by Ashley Price.

Read the deeper dives on Substack: https://civicera.substack.com/
Join the Well Lived Society membership, where I teach you how to set up your life so you have room to lead: Join Here
Know a woman who should be in the room? Send her this episode.
Leave a review. It's the fastest way to help other women find the show.

I will never tell you how to vote. I just want you to walk in prepared.

Send us Fan Mail

What hidden ways are gender and race shaping your credibility at work?

In this episode, we explore code switching with Maya Rupert, author of The Real Ones—why authentic leadership identity matters more than fitting the traditional narrative, and how ethical decision-making begins when you reclaim your actual voice.

Discover what real influence looks like when the room wasn't designed for you, and why women leaders who lead from their genuine authority build the trust and judgment that drive lasting impact.

Connect with Maya: 

LinkedIn

Buy The Real Ones on Amazon: https://amzn.to/43ryXDS

In My Civic Era is the civic playbook for women leaving their community better than they found it, hosted by Ashley Price.

Read the deeper dives on Substack: https://civicera.substack.com/
Join the Well Lived Society membership, where I teach you how to set up your life so you have room to lead: Join Here
Know a woman who should be in the room? Send her this episode.
Leave a review. It's the fastest way to help other women find the show.

I will never tell you how to vote. I just want you to walk in prepared.

Send us Fan Mail

Everyone asks how to keep up with AI but women leaders should ask: what can I build in myself that AI cannot replace?

Explore the human skills that matter most as AI reshapes work and leadership. Lemon Price digs into ethical responsibility, relational intelligence, and trustworthiness as the irreplaceable edges of intentional leadership.

A Book on Data: https://amzn.to/4ucWMeh

An Episode on Self-Trust: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2106156/episodes/19113390

Descript: https://get.descript.com/zximu1iffxy5

Guided Journal: https://www.lemonprice.co/product/future-you-journal/

In My Civic Era is the civic playbook for women leaving their community better than they found it, hosted by Ashley Price.

Read the deeper dives on Substack: https://civicera.substack.com/
Join the Well Lived Society membership, where I teach you how to set up your life so you have room to lead: Join Here
Know a woman who should be in the room? Send her this episode.
Leave a review. It's the fastest way to help other women find the show.

I will never tell you how to vote. I just want you to walk in prepared.

Send us Fan Mail

If you've ever walked out of a meeting with a financial advisor feeling more behind than when you walked in, this episode is for you.

Nicole Meihofer spent years doing high-level financial planning for families with nine-figure exits — the kind of wealth strategy most women never get access to. She left Merrill Lynch in 2018 to change that. Today, she runs PearlVest Capital, a woman- and minority-owned firm, and every client engagement starts with the same question: What does enough actually look like for you?

It sounds simple. It will rearrange everything.

In this conversation, Nicole walks through the two numbers every woman needs to know — your monthly thrive number and your investment number — and why your decision-making around money changes completely once you know both. We also get into the investment vs. expense mindset shift (yes, your cleaning person counts), why she retired the word "budget" entirely, and what the Wolf of Main Street gets right that Wall Street never will.

This is the financial planning conversation most women never get invited into. You're invited.

In this episode:

• The two-number framework that grounds every financial decision
• Why your decision-making around spending looks different when you're the breadwinner
• Investment vs. expense, and why the distinction changes your bank statement
• The Wolf of Main Street framework (and why it's the one worth following)
• What "enough" looks like when it's actually yours

Connect with Nicole

LinkedIn

Website

In My Civic Era is the civic playbook for women leaving their community better than they found it, hosted by Ashley Price.

Read the deeper dives on Substack: https://civicera.substack.com/
Join the Well Lived Society membership, where I teach you how to set up your life so you have room to lead: Join Here
Know a woman who should be in the room? Send her this episode.
Leave a review. It's the fastest way to help other women find the show.

I will never tell you how to vote. I just want you to walk in prepared.

Send us Fan Mail

External credibility means nothing without self-trust. You can have the bio, the board seat, the reputation, and still second-guess yourself in every room that matters.

Most leadership development programs will teach you how to build credibility with others. Nobody teaches you how to trust the voice that you already know.

In this episode, Lemon Price breaks down exactly why women stop trusting their own judgment, from the language used about little girls to code-switching to outsourcing our thinking to AI, and gives you three concrete practices to rebuild it.

In this episode:

• Why you don't have a confidence problem; you have a self-trust erosion problem
• How every time you override your instinct, you're banking a data point against yourself
• The small decision practice that builds the muscle without the stakes
• The evidence journal that gives your brain proof that your gut can be trusted
• The pre-mortem question that cuts through every major decision faster than anything else

The women who end up in the rooms where decisions get made aren't more certain than you. They're just more practiced at trusting their own read.

🔗 Download the Board Readiness Self-Assessment

In My Civic Era is the civic playbook for women leaving their community better than they found it, hosted by Ashley Price.

Read the deeper dives on Substack: https://civicera.substack.com/
Join the Well Lived Society membership, where I teach you how to set up your life so you have room to lead: Join Here
Know a woman who should be in the room? Send her this episode.
Leave a review. It's the fastest way to help other women find the show.

I will never tell you how to vote. I just want you to walk in prepared.

Send us Fan Mail

 Two milestones in one week: 50,000 downloads and two unexpected awards walked me out of the MPA ceremony.

This episode answers the question every woman leader asks: how do you actually get noticed—for boards, civic appointments, and the rooms where decisions happen?

We'll break down the visibility strategies that separate women leaders from invisible experts, and why building credibility is the real shortcut to influence.

Download the journal I mentioned in the episodes here. 

In My Civic Era is the civic playbook for women leaving their community better than they found it, hosted by Ashley Price.

Read the deeper dives on Substack: https://civicera.substack.com/
Join the Well Lived Society membership, where I teach you how to set up your life so you have room to lead: Join Here
Know a woman who should be in the room? Send her this episode.
Leave a review. It's the fastest way to help other women find the show.

I will never tell you how to vote. I just want you to walk in prepared.

Send us Fan Mail

Someone less qualified than you just got the opportunity you wanted. It happens more than anyone admits, and it's not about competence. It's about credibility.

In this episode, Lemon Price breaks down the difference between being capable and being believed, and why the gap between the two is costing women opportunities they've already earned.

You'll learn how to quantify and qualify your impact so people can actually see your value, how to tell your story in a way that sticks, and why hiding your wins is one of the most expensive things you can do for your career.

In this episode:

• Why trust and belief are two different things, and you need both
• How proximity accelerates credibility faster than anything else
• The exact framework for turning your achievements into stories people remember
• Why "I just got lucky" is quietly killing your reputation
• How credibility compounds over time, and what that looks like in practice

Stop waiting for someone to notice. Start making it impossible to overlook you.

In My Civic Era is the civic playbook for women leaving their community better than they found it, hosted by Ashley Price.

Read the deeper dives on Substack: https://civicera.substack.com/
Join the Well Lived Society membership, where I teach you how to set up your life so you have room to lead: Join Here
Know a woman who should be in the room? Send her this episode.
Leave a review. It's the fastest way to help other women find the show.

I will never tell you how to vote. I just want you to walk in prepared.

Send us Fan Mail

There's a man in my community who shows up to every single public meeting. Loud, consistent, impossible to ignore. And he has accomplished absolutely nothing. Because visibility without credibility is just noise.

In this episode, Lemon Price breaks down why being seen is the floor — not the goal — and how credibility actually compounds like interest over time. Every follow-through, every hard conversation, every time you show up for someone instead of just in front of them — that's a deposit. And eventually, the account pays dividends you never asked for.

In this episode:

• Why showing up is the minimum, not the achievement
• How credibility compounds and what the dividends actually look like
• Why your reputation enters the room before you do
• The goal isn't for everyone to know you — it's for the right people to believe in you

In My Civic Era is the civic playbook for women leaving their community better than they found it, hosted by Ashley Price.

Read the deeper dives on Substack: https://civicera.substack.com/
Join the Well Lived Society membership, where I teach you how to set up your life so you have room to lead: Join Here
Know a woman who should be in the room? Send her this episode.
Leave a review. It's the fastest way to help other women find the show.

I will never tell you how to vote. I just want you to walk in prepared.

Send us Fan Mail

At 25, with no lobbying background, no connections, and no impressive title, Lemon walked into a meeting with a sitting congressman. That conversation contributed to the Global Food Security Act — legislation that's been on the books for ten years. Here's exactly how that happened, and how you can get into those rooms too.

In this episode:

• Why the rooms where influential women are more accessible than you think
• The three-layer entry strategy: observe, prepare, connect
• What multidimensional preparation actually looks like before you walk in
• Who really holds power in local government (hint: it's probably not who you think)
• How to follow up in a way that sets you apart from everyone else
• The mistakes that will get you dismissed — even if your ideas are good
• How to signal you're ready for a seat at the table before anyone asks

This episode ends with one simple action step that costs nothing but could change everything about how you show up in your community.

Next week: The art of hosting as a leadership skill and why the standards you set at your table are the same ones that make people want to follow you outside of it.

In My Civic Era is the civic playbook for women leaving their community better than they found it, hosted by Ashley Price.

Read the deeper dives on Substack: https://civicera.substack.com/
Join the Well Lived Society membership, where I teach you how to set up your life so you have room to lead: Join Here
Know a woman who should be in the room? Send her this episode.
Leave a review. It's the fastest way to help other women find the show.

I will never tell you how to vote. I just want you to walk in prepared.