the uplift

For our Summer Session we’re running a fan favorite playlist: a combination of the most-listened-to episodes as well as listener favorites. Our Summer Session gives you a chance to revisit episodes you may not have heard in a while or even to listen to episodes you might have missed.

Today we're replaying Episode 22, Feminism is Optimism, with Elise Robinson at the University of Georgia. Here's your link to the episode's original show notes. 

If you're enjoying the podcast, enter a chance to win a free book! Head over to Apple podcasts (or your fave platform) and leave a review on the uplift page. Once a month I'll randomly select one of that month's reviewers to receive a $20 gift certificate to bookshop.org. You get more summer reading, and I get to help you build your library! It's a win for us both. 

So grab a nice tall glass of your favorite summer beverage, pull up your favorite outdoor chair or grab your hammock, and enjoy a few moments of summer, on me. I’ll be somewhere doing the same. 😎

Let's connect! Come find me on LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook.

I also coach women leaders (individually and in groups) and facilitate campus workshops. Learn more at the website.

Have a question about whether I can help you? Just ask! I actually love getting emails from listeners. 🧡

Let's connect! Come find me on LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook.

I also coach women leaders (individually and in groups) and facilitate campus workshops. Learn more at the website.

Have a question about whether I can help you? Just ask! I actually love getting emails from listeners. 🧡

For our summer session we’re running a fan favorite playlist: a combination of the most-listened-to episodes as well as listener favorites. Our Summer Session gives you a chance to revisit episodes you may not have heard in a while or even to listen to episodes you might have missed.

Today we're replaying Episode 20, A Bodacious Question, with Susi Keefe. Here's your link to the episode's original show notes. 

If you're enjoying the podcast, enter a chance to win a free book! Head over to Apple podcasts (or your fave platform) and leave a review on the uplift page. Once a month I'll randomly select one of that month's reviewers to receive a $20 gift certificate to bookshop.org. You get more summer reading, and I get to help you build your library! It's a win for us both. 

So grab a nice tall glass of your favorite summer beverage, pull up your favorite outdoor chair or grab your hammock, and enjoy a few moments of summer, on me. I’ll be somewhere doing the same. 😎

Let's connect! Come find me on LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook.

I also coach women leaders (individually and in groups) and facilitate campus workshops. Learn more at the website.

Have a question about whether I can help you? Just ask! I actually love getting emails from listeners. 🧡

For our summer session we’re running a fan favorite playlist: a combination of the most-listened-to episodes as well as listener favorites. Our Summer Session gives you a chance to revisit episodes you may not have heard in a while or even to listen to episodes you might have missed.

Today we're replaying Episode 24, Empathy & Gratitude: Mandy Balek Stephens on Mentoring Young Professionals. Mandy is School Director for the Schuler Scholars Program at Golda Meir School in Milwaukee.  Here's your link to the episode's original show notes. 

If you're enjoying the podcast, enter a chance to win a free book! Head over to Apple podcasts (or your fave platform) and leave a review on the uplift page. Once a month I'll randomly select one of that month's reviewers to receive a $20 gift certificate to bookshop.org. You get more summer reading, and I get to help you build your library! It's a win for us both. 

So grab a nice tall glass of your favorite summer beverage, pull up your favorite outdoor chair or grab your hammock, and enjoy a few moments of summer, on me. I’ll be somewhere doing the same. 😎

Let's connect! Come find me on LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook.

I also coach women leaders (individually and in groups) and facilitate campus workshops. Learn more at the website.

Have a question about whether I can help you? Just ask! I actually love getting emails from listeners. 🧡

For our summer session we’re running a fan favorite playlist: a combination of the most-listened-to episodes as well as listener favorites. Our Summer Session gives you a chance to revisit episodes you may not have heard in a while or even to listen to episodes you might have missed.

Today we're replaying Episode 21, Democracy is a Creative Act, featuring my interview with Jill Arensdorf, Provost and Professor of Leadership at Ft. Hayes State University.  Here's your link to the episode's original show notes. 

If you're enjoying the podcast, enter a chance to win a free book! Head over to Apple podcasts (or your fave platform) and leave a review on the uplift page. Once a month I'll randomly select one of that month's reviewers to receive a $20 gift certificate to bookshop.org. You get more summer reading, and I get to help you build your library! It's a win for us both. 

So grab a nice tall glass of your favorite summer beverage, pull up your favorite outdoor chair or grab your hammock, and enjoy a few moments of summer, on me. I’ll be somewhere doing the same. 😎

Let's connect! Come find me on LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook.

I also coach women leaders (individually and in groups) and facilitate campus workshops. Learn more at the website.

Have a question about whether I can help you? Just ask! I actually love getting emails from listeners. 🧡

For our summer session we’re running a fan favorite playlist: a combination of the most-listened-to episodes as well as listener favorites. Our Summer Session gives you a chance to revisit episodes you may not have heard in a while or even to listen to episodes you might have missed.

Today we're replaying Episode 23: Mentors & Allies: How to be Machiavellian without being a Machiavellianne. The episode draws heavily on the book Machiavelli for Women by Stacey Vanek Smith. I love the book -- grab your copy here if you don't have one already. And here's your link to the episode's original show notes. 

If you're enjoying the podcast, enter a chance to win a free book! Head over to Apple podcasts (or your fave platform) and leave a review on the uplift page. Once a month I'll randomly select one of that month's reviewers to receive a $20 gift certificate to bookshop.org. You get more summer reading, and I get to help you build your library! It's a win for us both. 

So grab a nice tall glass of your favorite summer beverage, pull up your favorite outdoor chair or grab your hammock, and enjoy a few moments of summer, on me. I’ll be somewhere doing the same. 😎

Let's connect! Come find me on LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook.

I also coach women leaders (individually and in groups) and facilitate campus workshops. Learn more at the website.

Have a question about whether I can help you? Just ask! I actually love getting emails from listeners. 🧡

In honor of Juneteenth I explore its history, including The Emancipation Proclamation, General Order #3, and Biden's proclaiming today a federal holiday. 

If you've never read The Emancipation Proclamation and/or want to hear some beautiful words from the poet Ross Gay, this episode is for you. 

Readings & Resources

The Emancipation Proclamation. 

Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American

Biden's proclamation

Let's connect! Come find me on LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook.

I also coach women leaders (individually and in groups) and facilitate campus workshops. Learn more at the website.

Have a question about whether I can help you? Just ask! I actually love getting emails from listeners. 🧡

This may be obvious but it bears saying out loud: our words matter. 

When we use war metaphors we create a reality rooted in violence against other humans we perceive as our enemies. 

When we use sports metaphors we create a reality rooted in competition and besting our opponents. 

When we use familial metaphors we create a reality rooted in the perceived ideal of strong natural ties without acknowledging the dysfunction, disappointment, and pain that accompany love, affection, and growth.

So today I want to continue the conversation about the language we use on our campuses as a way of cracking open language that might be oppressive or harmful. I started this in episode 52 talking about DEI language, and today I’m extending that into other words and phrases that I think are worth reconsidering.

Wisdom at Work (11:42) I’m offering a new leadership program designed specifically to develop teams of women on college campuses with a two-fold goal: strengthening your leadership pipeline while creating collective, comprehensive, cultural change through transformative team development.

This isn’t an elitist program designed for cabinet members: it’s an accessible, affordable program designed to help women – especially those who are beginning to discover their leadership potential and aspirations  – develop the mindset, skills, and tools they need as they prepare to step into more advanced leadership roles.

By the end of this program women in your campus cohort will have increased confidence; better team-building skills; practice creating trusting, inclusive, psychologically safe environments; and enhanced communication skills. They’ll also be practiced at being coached and coaching others, creating a ripple effect as they bring their new skills and habits to their departments…and beyond. 

That campus-wide reach is what makes this program unique. Instead of supporting one-off, individual leadership development for select women, this program focuses on building a culture of leadership that positions your institution to make the kinds of lasting change you seek. 

The model is straightforward: a cohort = up to 10 women from one institution. The program runs during Fall term (starting late August and ending mid-December); it includes biweekly live sessions with optional readings and resources, as well as additional support through my coaching and consulting business, The Clareo Group. 

I’m only accepting 10 institutions for Fall 2023.  Will your campus be one of them?

Learn more at https://theclareogr

Let's connect! Come find me on LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook.

I also coach women leaders (individually and in groups) and facilitate campus workshops. Learn more at the website.

Have a question about whether I can help you? Just ask! I actually love getting emails from listeners. 🧡

What HAVE I learned from a year of podcasting? 🧐

In no particular order, here are (some of) the things I’ve learned -- all life lessons --  from a year of podcasting. 

1. When you’re podcasting, even though you’re speaking on a public platform you’re not speaking to everyone. You’re speaking and most people aren’t listening. Also, you’re speaking and some people wish you wouldn’t. And here’s the lesson: so.the.fuck.what. Speak anyway. The people who wish you weren’t speaking are not your people. And among the billions of people who aren’t (yet) listening, there are people out there eager to hear exactly what you’re saying. Say it so they can find you. 
2. Your attention matters. The episodes where I’ve sweated stuff have been the episodes that matter the most to me. They’re the ones I remember, that I’m glad exist. It’s easy as a college administrator to have the experience that you crank stuff out - you make decisions, revise policies, attend events – and it’s all important to someone but not deeply meaningful to your soul. Doing work that isn’t meaningful turns out to be a hard habit to break, especially since we live in a world that rewards quick responses and regular presence. Sometimes I still crank my work out. And sometimes I am able to give episodes more attention, and that turns out to be deeply rewarding.
3. Podcasting is almost as cathartic as journaling, and I’ve come to appreciate the effects of having the discipline to think about something well enough to say anything at all about it. I’ve been exploring recently how to carry that discipline into my writing. We’ll see if anything comes of that. 
4. A year of doing anything builds habits - for better and for worse. When I started the podcast I had no idea how to do any of its component parts, except the writing. Everything else as I’ve learned as I’ve gone. And every now and then I’ve realized that I keep doing something the same way I learned it - because doing something over and over makes it a habit. So it’s been beneficial for me to step back and look at my habits and structures, and either embrace them or revise them.
5. Podcasting has changed how I listen to other podcasts. I sometimes listen for content, but I’m always listening for editing. I listen for production. I listen for the narrative arc. There’s an analog to how I read. I love reading and sometimes I read with the intention of losing myself in what I’m reading. I read, quite literally, for the physiological pleasure of reading. I’m also a trained scholar of literature and so sometimes I read with the intention to explore the writer’s  use of structure, character, the use of imagery. I’m also trained in critical theories so sometimes I read with the intention of understanding a feminist take on a text, or I read and contemplate what I think about the text from a new historicist perspective. I can, somewhat but not fully, turn these faculties on and off at will. I could not have done this with podcasts a year ago, because I didn’t know enough about how to create t

Let's connect! Come find me on LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook.

I also coach women leaders (individually and in groups) and facilitate campus workshops. Learn more at the website.

Have a question about whether I can help you? Just ask! I actually love getting emails from listeners. 🧡

Mary Oliver's poem, The Summer Day, does not appear in this episode but my thinking is inspired by her question: since this is the only life we have, what will you do with yorus? 

How will you spend your days?

Leaders in higher ed often don't feel in control of their days. We have so much to respond to, and so many people we're accountable to. It seems right to spend our days attending to all those things, and letting them all shape our priorities. 

But that can easily turn into a life where instead of accomplishing what you care about most, you've just reacted to, and for, others. 

There is a better way. 

It's not productivity hacks - although that's part of it. It's not purely self-care and boundary-setting - although that's part of it. It's not strategy and planning -- although that's part of it. 

It's taking the time to articulate what you care most about, and then organizing your day to make space for you to focus on those things. It's integrating your family and personal life into your one big picture of how you spend your time. It's understanding which activities will bring you closer to your dreams. And it's letting go of everything else. 

Today I talk through my approach to organizing my days (and life) this way, and invite you to join me. I've put together a FREE PLANNER that will guide you through this, AND I'm offering a FREE WORKSHOP so we can work through the planner together. 

Download the planner here, and then join me on Friday June 2 at 11 am central for a FREE WORKSHOP to design the days of your dreams. 🧡

Readings and resources

Oliver Burkeman: Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals

Mary Oliver: Devotions

Rebecca Pope-Ruark: Unraveling Faculty Burnout: Pathways to Reckoning & Renewal

Other episodes you might enjoy

Episode 42: Checking In With Your Goals

Episode 32: Lessons From My Year of Yes

Episode 30: The Grounded Academic Leader: Annual Plan 2023

Episode 17: A New Kind o

Let's connect! Come find me on LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook.

I also coach women leaders (individually and in groups) and facilitate campus workshops. Learn more at the website.

Have a question about whether I can help you? Just ask! I actually love getting emails from listeners. 🧡

Whenever I explore research in equity work, either by reading or by talking to experts, I hear all kinds of updates in language. 

And when I try to research the idea of language updates, I read all kinds of articles about the difficulty inherent in accurate naming, and sometimes even acknowledgement that striving for the right language is itself rooted in anxiety and perfectionism. 

So there’s no easy way through this. 

That said, I’ve learned some interesting things I think are worth distilling and sharing. Today let's talk about them!

Vocabulary we discuss today:

Under-represented vs. under-recognized

Minority vs. minoritized and/or excluded

Diversity vs. [specific] diversity

Microaggression vs. abuse

Privilege vs. entitlement

Ally AND accomplice

Readings & resources

These 4 Phrases are Sabotaging Your DEI Efforts, Fast Company

Why We Should Stop Saying Underrepresented, Harvard Business Review

Andre K. Isaacs on undderrepresented 

We Need to Retire the Term Microaggressions, Harvard Business Review

Race REALLY Matters, David Asai

Additional episodes you might like:

Episode 50: White Women's Nonsense, with Renee Wells

Episode 47: White Women's Work: An Invitation, with Jayne Sommers

Let's connect! Come find me on LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook.

I also coach women leaders (individually and in groups) and facilitate campus workshops. Learn more at the website.

Have a question about whether I can help you? Just ask! I actually love getting emails from listeners. 🧡