But what if Grow is an acronym (Get Rid Of old Ways) We talk about growth like it’s a destination. We set growth goals, chase growth mindsets, and consume growth strategies. But what if we have been thinking about it backwards? Growth isn’t about accumulating more knowledge, more habits, more tasks. Often, it’s a subtractive process. It’s about creating space for the new by Getting Rid of Old Ways. Get Real with Yourself. You can’t change what you won’t acknowledge. The first step is total honesty. Old ways are the invisible weight of    self limiting beliefs. We are stuck in comfort zones and outdated stories you tell yourself about your capabilities. It’s subtraction. A mental and emotional prison. Ask yourself, What story am I still telling myself that I’ve outgrown? and then    be willing to finally set it down. And it’s not a one time purge. It’s an everyday practice of releasing permission seeking, ego protecting, energy draining patterns that creep back in if ...

Normalize Being Direct, Not Discreet There’s a strange belief that floats around in corporate culture the idea that discretion equals professionalism. You hear it in phrases like, We can’t say that to the team, They don’t need to know the details, or the ever popular, Let’s keep this high level. And while there’s a time and place for this nuance, this default to vague, cautious communication doesn’t protect people. It disorients them. It creates a power imbalance. And over time, it chips away at self worth. When employees are under communicated with, when decisions are made behind glass walls and messages are watered down beyond recognition, they start to internalize the fog. They second guess. They hesitate. They make assumptions. They fill in the blanks with the worst case scenario. On the flip side? When you’re over communicated to, when someone trusts you with context, stakes, challenges, even uncomfortable truths you feel something radical trusted. Valued. Capable. Becau...

  Alarm Clock, I want a divorce. We have grown apart. I have changed. For real it has been toxic for a while now. At first, it was cute. A little chime here, a gentle buzz there. You nudged me awake with a sense of purpose. A job to do. A meeting to make. A life to build. But now? You just scream at me. Aggressively. At ungodly hours. With zero regard for my REM cycle, my soul, or the fact that I stayed up doom scrolling until 1:47 a.m. because my brain refuses to shut off without a fight and a snack.  And what do yo even wake me up for?  My calendar is jam packed and impossible to manage. Emails flood in nonstop. Meetings meant to be quick drag on forever and never end without me saying I have to drop for another meeting.  I am not waking up to chase dreams. I am waking up to chase down project timelines and approvals.  I do not want to rise and grind. I do not want to even rise. Not until my Outlook reminder says I have 4 minutes to mentally prep...

Who Checks on the Strong Friend? (Yeah, I’m Talkin’ to You.) They always say, You got this. But like, who got YOU, sis? Oh, you know the drill. You are the crisis hotline, the therapist with no couch, the one everyone leans on. The one who holds it together when the world’s falling apart. The backbone. The glue. The fixer. You are the calm in chaos, the shoulder to cry on, the person who somehow always answers the phone even when your own world is in full blown crisis mode. And you do it with grace. You smile through storms like it’s your skincare routine. You’ve mastered the art of laughing while your chest feels heavy. You show up, pour out, lift others but tell me this, Who the hell is checking on you? People forget that strong doesn't mean invincible. It means you’ve just gotten good at faking it. You’ve learned how to cry in the shower, then hop out like nothing happened. You give love like Oprah gives away cars YOU get some peace, YOU get some hope!   But meanwhile?...

Water has no effect on fake flowers. The first time I heard that, it knocked the wind out of me. Because it explained years of frustration I couldn’t quite put into words. For so long, I thought the problem was me. Maybe I just wasn’t pouring in enough, enough patience, enough kindness, enough late night pep talks, enough second chances. If I just tried harder, showed up more, bent a little further, surely that relationship would bloom. But you can water fake flowers all day long, and nothing changes. They’ll sit there looking perfect, maybe even fool you for a while, but they’ll never grow. They can’t. That realization changed everything for me. Because real relationships whether personal or professional are alive. They respond. They may wilt if neglected, they may require effort, but when you give them care, they show signs of life. They grow with you. Fake ones just drain you. So instead of beating myself up with the question Am I giving enough? I started asking a better question ,...

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about my leadership team. I love these people they are smart, committed, and talented     but I see us struggling sometimes. Not because anyone is failing, but because we’re not always working together as smoothly as we could. Initiatives stall. Decision making can get messy. Workloads pile up, and instead of easing each other’s load, we sometimes add to it. Our teams feel it too.  Nobody really tells you this, leadership isn’t just about meeting decks and performance metrics. It’s about people. And learning people takes energy. Not the what’s your title and role kind of learning, but the deeper, more exhausting, more rewarding kind. The kind where you know who shuts down in a crowded room, who thrives under pressure, who needs context before decisions, and who just wants you to land the plane. It’s not one size fits all. Some people are easy, you pick up their rhythms quick. Others feel like you are studying for a pop quiz every time you ...