Hi Reader! I’m just back from what I’m calling The Empty Nester Distraction Tour with my dear friend Vanessa. We spent 10 days seeing and eating all the things in London and Copenhagen. It was as dreamy as you’d expect. So. Many. Pastries. As you can imagine, reentry has been a little rough. I gave myself a pretty light week, but I could barely swing the bare minimum I was expecting of myself. For example, I’m sending this out a day late. I spent a good part of today just sitting around upset...
5 days ago • 4 min read
Hi Reader! I’m doing a bunch of work on my house right now. My son is moving out, and I’m distracting myself from the 😭 of it all by updating his room. It will still be his, but not… uhm… disgusting. It’s the only room in the house that’s never been professionally painted. I’ve always done that room myself. I don’t know why. The walls and ceiling were covered in earthquake cracks that I kept ignoring and painting over. This week I finally hired a pro to do it right. And it got me thinking...
27 days ago • 6 min read
Hi Reader! Are you really good at investing in other people? Your kids. Your team. Your community. Do you sometimes invest so much that you find yourself overcommitted and exhausted? But when it comes to investing in yourself, do you hesitate? While I was thinking about this email, I caught myself doing exactly that. In big and small ways. Earlier this year, I was considering a sales and marketing program with someone I know and respect. I had big goals for the year, and I was confident she...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
Hi Reader! AI is so confusing right now. On the one hand, it’s jumping out of testing sandboxes and hacking into other companies’ systems. And an Anthropic engineer was in the news this week after quitting, warning that AI could wipe out humanity. And on the other hand, the more time I spend trying to get AI to make my life easier, the more impressed I am with my own human brain. I’ve never felt smarter in my life. So assuming humanity isn’t wiped out — who is going to come out okay in this...
about 1 month ago • 5 min read
Hi Reader! “Financial security isn’t having money in the bank. It’s knowing you have the ability to make money when you need to.” I heard Pia Silva say that on her podcast three years ago, and it lodged itself forever in my brain, body and soul. Earlier this year, I got to test that idea. After a great 2025, when I was booked out with a waitlist for much of the year, things suddenly got very quiet. At the end of 2025 and into early 2026, hardly anyone was booking sales calls. Normally the end...
about 2 months ago • 6 min read
Hi Reader! Okay, friends — we need to talk about Claude Design. I’d been ignoring it until my friend Andie Huber wrote a great piece on LinkedIn calling out the hypocrisy of people complaining about written AI slop while happily hopping on the AI design slop bandwagon. And ooh — do that design slop be sloppin'. I know because I tried it myself. I recently launched a new brand and website for a coach, facilitator and speaker who specializes in workplace culture. So I decided to feed that...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
Hi Reader! 3 years ago, I made two changes in my business that terrified me. Both made it more profitable. Change No. 1 First, I decided to work exclusively with women who run service-based businesses. I talked about this a couple weeks ago, but I know that niching can be scary. I wasn’t willing to do it until I had a long slow stretch in 2023 and it became obvious that it wasn’t working for me anymore to say, “I can design anything for everyone.” Now I say, “I help women coaches and...
2 months ago • 4 min read
Hi Reader! I know I’m not supposed to play favorites with my projects, BUT… I really love this one. Probably because I’m the exact target audience: High Achieving Midlife Woman Who Has Her Shit Together. Except When She Doesn’t. When Jessica Long came to me, she had a DIY website that was fine. But it was designed for an earlier version of her and her business. Now, she’s launching something new: a breathwork program created specifically for women navigating the overwhelm, expectations, and...
3 months ago • 4 min read
Hi Reader! I tell all my clients to get professional branding photos because it’s a no-brainer way to look professional and feel more confident. But I haven’t always been a great role model. I got my first design job with a photography portfolio and shot the brand photos for a handful of my clients myself. I understand the importance of good photography. But for YEARS, I was over here with my iPhone and tripod, pretending my selfies were good enough for my own brand 🙄 Thankfully, last year, I...
4 months ago • 3 min read