Your Sorority Journey

Stepping into a leadership position or your titleless leadership potential and nervous about how your friends will respond to new boundaries in your life that come with that role? Let's talk about it. Join Cassie and friendship coach, Danielle Bayard Jackson, in unpacking pitfalls we often experience when sorority becomes a commodified community. Danielle's expertise from research she's done in female friendship will give you tangible tools to navigate friendships with honesty, trusting that the right relationships will respect and reciprocate, and cultivate a community of contribution within your sisterhood.

Connect with Danielle ⁠here⁠!

Just got elected onto your sorority's executive council? CONGRATULATIONS! Once the reality of this privileged opportunity sinks in, you might find yourself leaning toward one of two extremes: 1) getting ready to change everything that's been done in your position before hoping for a different result than you've seen in the past or 2) preparing to replicate the plans you have seen executed in the past to ensure the same results.

In this episode, you’ll learn why both extremes can be dangerous to your sisterhood’s health and growth! Cassie has a framework of questions to ask yourself every time you are considering making a change to identify if it’s a pillar (something that should be sustained) or a banner (something to innovatively reimagine!)

Looking for support with your officer transitions? Take advantage of our pre-recorded officer transition workshop, Pass the Gavel, available for $149 through the end of the year!

So you're coming to the end of your sorority officer position - what's next in your sorority journey? As your sisters in your chapter prepare to transition into the roles you and your friends have held this past year, let's get you ready to STEP UP as a leader in the chapter as you step down from your titled role. After serving for a year or longer, it is no easy experience going from the executive board to being a general member so Kayla Eggering, the recruitment advisor and past chapter president of Alpha Sigma Alpha at Missouri State, joined Cassie to unpack helpful considerations & the nuances of this transition. Tune in to learn how to find the balance of being present & available to the newly elected officer with not being overbearing and showing up as a role model with caring for yourself after a likely exhausting term. Ultimately, we hope you use these tips as a road map to be able to graduate with pride in your sorority journey & a desire to continue serving your organization as a proud alumna and potentially advisor. You may be stepping down from a title but you are stepping up in leading by example and showing your support!

So you're ready to run for a sorority officer position... have you thought about why? Have you mapped out what you hope to accomplish?

Cassie believes that ALL interested sorority leaders need the take the time to imagine what they hope the chapter would look like as a result of their leadership - cast a clear vision for their leadership term. And it needs to be about impact. Sorority leaders are responsible to leave the chapter better than they found it - you need a vision that will sustain your leadership to do that!

In this episode, let's talk about how to cultivate a vision that reflects the needs of your members, will motivate you throughout the year, and not make the result of elections personally. In short, tune in to learn how run for a sorority officer position NOT about you.

Upperclassmen Sorority Members! Did you know that you dictate the leadership culture in your chapter? The way you model membership, take ownership in your chapter, and empower younger members will be repeated! As sorority election season is upon us, let's talk about how to balance the need to elevate upperclassmen leaders and the value of fresh perspective from emerging leaders. We invited Aubrey Hardy, Her Sorority Journey's Resource Intern & Chapter President of Alpha Sigma Alpha at Missouri State, to discuss the implications of unbalanced elections. From her own leadership journey, Aubrey shares her passion for elections to cultivate positive change in the chapter, honor outgoing and aspiring officers, and sustain sisterhood. In this episode, Cassie & Aubrey explore the two extremes of not having enough interest in elections to an overflow of aspiring leaders officers and the role upperclassmen and newer members often play in each scenario.

How quickly it seems we go from stressing about recruitment to stressing about retention! If your chapter or community has set member retention goals, this episode is for you. Her Sorority Journey Executive Assistant and local chapter advisor, Maddy Wilson, joins Cassie to define what we're talking about when we discuss "retention", help us reset our goals to be rooted in the membership experience, and provide actionable steps for each group of members we hope to keep in our sisterhood. Maddy is an advisor to a chapter in and graduate student of Appalachian State University, located in Boone, NC. In light of the devastation that she witnessed and heard of in neighboring towns from Hurricane Helene, Maddy shares her experience living through this natural disaster and her unique perspective on retention for sisters in affected communities. While we dream that sisterhood can be a place of support & stability for sisters in unthinkable circumstances like these, we hope our disclaimer to start the episode provides sisters permission to take the steps they need to look out for their wellbeing, even if that means stepping away from sisterhood.

Welcome to Season 5! We are so excited to kick off the new season with an interview with Her Sorority Journey's 2024 Uncharted Grant Recipient. Valerie has been making moves to open a dance studio to inspire confidence and cultivate authentic community for women. In this episode, she shares her passion to empower others through dance and the role her sorority sisters played in motivating her to take this jump! Cassie and Valerie relate about the challenges that come with entrepreneurship and the role self-care plays in preventing burnout & sustaining the vision. We are celebrating with Valerie as her business, Diva Dance Nashville, opens this weekend!

Calling all Pi Chis, Gamma Chis, Rho Gammas, and Recruitment Counselors! You play such an invaluable role in sorority recruitment regardless of your reason for being there. Whether you applied to skip your chapter's recruitment process or you’re actually really missing your chapter, your influence WILL shape the PNM experience so let's talk about how to reset your intentions if they are for any other reason besides mentorship & support of our next generation of sisters. As a recruitment counselor, you have all eyes and ears on you to model a way of sisterhood and positivity. On the podcast today, Her Sorority Journey's Summer Social Media Intern and UNC Wilmington's Panhellenic Vice President of Public Relations, Taylor Autrey, shares her insight into the role of recruitment counselors. We want you to feel prepared going into hard conversations with PNMS or missing the core memories being made by your chapter and stay focused on the impact you making on your Panhellenic community AND your chapter, even if you don't see it right away!

Attention to all returning recruiters feeling like you’ve done your time and your not needed. Consider this your pep talk to get your head in the game for recruitment season because you are apart of a team who needs YOU. Listen to find out how your energy and role elevates the chapters recruitment experience. For recruitment leaders use this episode to find inspiration on how to encourage these members and use them as support throughout the week!

You’ve been recruited and enjoyed a full year of the sorority experience but now it’s your turn to recruit and invite others into the sisterhood! Recruitment week doesn’t have to be what social media has made it seem and their truly is more that goes into besides posting TikToks. @Bewellwithbritt _ a mental health advocate, representative of NAMI and pilates teacher shares her vision for a restful week of recruitment. The idea is that through this podcast you will learn ways to prioritize yourself in July so that when August brings on recruitment season you’re ready. Mental health, gratitude, and communication in conflict are all topics discussed in relation to recruitment for first years.