Last weekend I was a mess. I had just kicked off my Seed round of fundraising for my company, and had bought into the idea that ‘fundraising is a grind.’ I was stressed, tired, and unable to be present. Ugh. But, get this—I changed my mindset. I chose to be happy. I removed the false deadlines and undue pressure on myself. I gave myself credit for all that I was learning, versus playing over my inevitable mistakes over and over in my head. I flooded myself with gratitude

Have a big conversation that you are nervous about with your boss or partner? Try empathy mapping. Basically, you put yourself in the other person’s shoes and think through the following: Map out their why: What are their biggest concerns right now? Predict: What will they think? What reactions will they have? Reframe: What will be your response to each of their reactions? How can you reframe what you want as something that they want too? Do this for any major conversation

I love any tip to prevent or improve meetings. They are such a suck of our most valuable asset—time. Today is simple. Before meeting with someone, ask the person to send over a few bullets on what they want to cover. This helps make the meeting more efficient by both allowing you to get the ‘update’ part of the meeting over via email and making sure you are better prepared to discuss the meat of the meeting. Or, better yet, it might prevent the meeting from happening at a

I had a stark realization this week! I use too many exclamation points! It is rare for me to email with none! Studies show that women use exclamation points far more than men in the workplace to appear friendly and less curt.  On the flip side, they can also make you seem less professional. Lily, the newsletter editor from working mom community, Chairman Mom, tried an experiment: For 24 hours, she refused to use exclamation points in any communication. I tried the same. It wa