Reader, I remember my boss of six years greeting me e.v.e.r.y. d.a.y. with… ☀️ Hello Sunshine! ☀️ Each day. In texts. At the top of an email. When she greeted me after a tough meeting with Martha. Here is why this is important. It wasn’t about being polite… it was neurological. Think about that smile someone gives you when you are checking out groceries or when you get your morning coffee. Our brains are wired to mirror emotion—so when you smile at someone or give them a warm hello, their...
7 days ago • 3 min read
Reader, Last week, I was walking through Newark Airport on my way to my gate. What I remember is the music. The soft echo of piano keys playing in the terminal. Not the usual boarding announcements. Not the rolling wheels of carry-ons. The music. As I got closer, I saw a traveler playing the piano. Backpack slung over one shoulder. Carry-on at his side. Sitting on a bench next to a full gate of people like he was playing in his own living room. A random traveler sees a piano bench as an open...
14 days ago • 3 min read
Reader, I was never the ‘best’. Not the best marketer.Not the best salesperson.Not the best manager, Publisher, or Chief Revenue Officer. I used to say that apologetically. Out loud to my bosses. I don’t anymore. I finally learned that the relationship I had with myself was shaping every other relationship in my life. I stopped apologizing for being too direct.For pushing for the 9th revision.For wanting to go above and beyond when others thought good was good enough. I know I bugged people....
21 days ago • 2 min read
Reader, Extraordinary things are for someone else. Have you had that thought? I know that secret belief. Leading my team at Martha Stewart Living through tech and media disruption, an IPO, public scrutiny, and annual layoffs, I kept my head just above water while I was given: More expectations. More responsibility. More pressure. To some, it looked like ambition, but on the inside it was toxic insecurity. I thought the goal was to survive the pressure — get to the other side of it. I tried...
28 days ago • 2 min read
Reader, I'm deep into launching a keynote speaking business while running my coaching business. I thought it would be a natural extension. I'm learning the hard way, again, that nothing is as natural as it looks from the outside. In the middle of all of it, I caught myself doing something I recognize in my clients. While scrambling doing all the "right" things, I joined webinars. Paid for summits. Committed to challenges. Consumed podcasts. Took notes I haven't looked at since. This is a...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Reader, Last week, I played in a paddle tennis tournament.For a few games on that court, I felt something I can only describe as abundance. The ball met my racquet exactly where I expected it to.I sensed where the return was coming from before it arrived.I wasn’t forcing shots — I was placing them. I was in flow. It felt light.Fluid.Spacious. Full — but not heavy.Focused — but not forced.Effortful — but without resistance. That, to me, is abundance. I also know all too well the opposite...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Reader, There was a season of my life I call the river of misery. Despair on one side.Comparison on the other.And me… floating somewhere in the middle wondering how I got here. I had left Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia after nearly two decades. A former boss recruited me to an up-and-coming digital media technology company. They wanted a national revenue leader who could reimagine their product through storytelling. I was all in. In eight months, I doubled the ad buy deal size. Then the...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
Reader, 🎧🎧 Listen to Sunday Sunshine HERE 🎧🎧 Some people doom scroll. I go down the rabbit hole of research -- usually now with Chat. I was prepping a speaker application for the American Trucking Association — a bit of a stretch, I know, so I did my homework. And down the rabbit hole I went. It's where I discovered a powerful story about delivery trucks. At UPS, drivers were working incredibly hard — and still falling behind. More packages.More pressure.More accidents.More fuel costs....
2 months ago • 2 min read
Reader, 🎧🎧 Listen to Sunday Sunshine HERE 🎧🎧 I read recently… Writers write. Builders build. Leaders lead. When I first started writing Sunday Sunshine — and later, my book — I didn’t think I could become a writer. Sure, I could craft a good email. But a writer? That felt like a stretch. Everything I read said the same thing: Writers write every day.You build a practice.You earn the identity through repetition. That's how you become a writer. It was intimidating at first. Then it freed me....
2 months ago • 2 min read
Reader, 🎧🎧 Listen to Sunday Sunshine HERE 🎧🎧 Like an ocean wave, it comes ashore again and again.It begins again. You can begin again each and every day. Begin again—without shame.without blame.without the baggage of yesterday. Every day offers a new beginning.A new 24 hours.A fresh page. A new day to make a mark.A new energy that lights you up—and becomes contagious. Most failures and disappointments aren’t surprises. They’re ignored signals. Today is a fresh day to listen.To evaluate what’s...
3 months ago • 2 min read