Career Mama newsletter

Hi Career Mamas,

September was all about AI as your ally. Together we experimented with saving time at work, lightening the load at home, and improving your messages.

✨ September events recap:

Momentum Check-In: You aligned on a bold quarterly goal and left with clarity on what to prioritize before year-end.
AI Q&A + Comms Coach Intro: We launched the CM AI Comms Coach and learned from Jamie Caldwell, our member AI expert, how AI can help you write and confidently prep for meetings. You can watch the recording on our Career Mama platform in Kajabi.

💬 Monthly Slack roundup:

Navigating leadership turnover: Rucha Heda shared that multiple senior leaders in her org have recently left for startups, sparking concern about instability but also opening doors for growth. She asked the community what questions to raise now and what red flags to watch for.
Growing into leadership without burning out: Lenka Kokko asked for advice on showing she’s ready for VP while managing extra responsibilities and avoiding burnout.
Getting through a busy work season: Shivani Berry shared what’s helping her manage long workdays while prioritizing rest and family time and others chimed in as well.
Pricing new consulting services: Sam Wonser asked for ideas on charging hourly vs. tiered packages, sharing her excitement (and a few nerves) about finding the right way to show her value to new clients.
Career Mama’s new brand reveal 🎉: Introducing our new “professional chic” identity, reflecting both career ambitions and motherhood + sharing the recently held workshop to invite more moms who need our community.

More threads that resonated this month…

October’s theme is Storytelling 2.0: Practical frameworks to structure a message and strategize delivery to convince stakeholders to support one’s idea. You’ll learn how to communicate effectively while navigating power dynamics of the situation or meeting.

Up next: October events and calendar challenge, Circle prompt, and Kajabi updates.

🗣️ Upcoming Events:

Kick Off Call: 10/8 11am-12pm PT (Connect with new and existing Career Mamas. Optional, but we encourage you to join!)
Group Coaching call: 10/10 11am-12pm PT
Circle: 10/16 & 10/17

→ If you would like to switch Circle timing going forward or have requests to be paired with certain members (or not to be with), reply back by Friday (10/3). Circle options: Thursday 12-1pm PT or Friday 11am-12pm PT (3rd week of every month)

📚 Storytelling Video Lessons to Watch:

We’ve added a new Storytelling Intensive 2.0 module to the platform. These video lessons with frameworks and real-world examples will help you structure your message, convince stakeholders, and navigate power dynamics with confidence. Message examples include presenting a recommendation, making a comment in a meeting, motivating a team, sharing updates in daily standup, and aligning on goals. Whether this is a refresher or new to you (navigating stakeholder power dynamics is new to all!), apply these learnings to at least 1 meeting next week.

👉 Log in to Kajabi to view the module here. Please review before the Coaching Call.

🎯 Challenge for October: Reclaim time for what matters

Calendar Challenge: Each week you're going to drop or protect something to reclaim time for what matters — catching up, thinking big, resting, or simply breathing room in your day. We're going to start with weekly changes and move into daily shifts:

📆 Week 1 Challenge (October 6th week): Win back 15 minutes just once this week
📆 Week 2 Challenge (October 14th week): Win back 30 minutes just once this week
📆 Week 3 Challenge (October 20th week): Win back 15 minutes a day
📆 Week 4 Challenge (October 27th week): Win back 30 minutes a day

🔍 How to Participate (optional):

Each week: Pick one thing to drop or say “no” to (Examples: A meeting you don’t need, a low-impact task, a chore you can skip or delegate, stop scrolling on IG) OR Pick one thing to protect or say “yes” to (Examples: A quiet focus block, your lunch break, a walk, uninterrupted time with your kids, a nightly unwind routine)
Put your reclaimed time on your calendar
Put in Slack on Fridays with how much time you saved (or more productively used the time) and summary of how you did it

Look out for MJ’s Slack on Monday (10/6) to kick off our challenge but start thinking about how you can save 15 minutes next week. ⏰

✍️ Circle prompt for October:

Reflect on a recent meeting you led or participated in didn’t go as you expected.

Why didn’t the meeting go as expected? Are there any power dynamics that made it challenging? For example, maybe the stakeholder pushed back unexpectedly, you didn’t speak up, you held back on voicing your opinion, you didn’t get support for your idea, chatty colleague (‘dominator’ persona) derailed the meeting, someone talked over you, conflict in meeting, disagreement, misaligned expectations, ‘power broker’ persona didn’t agree with you.
What was your reaction when things started going off-track?
In hindsight, what is 1 action you could have taken to keep the meeting on track?

🕒 Please reflect on this for 15 minutes before your Circle discussion.

🌟 Member Spotlight:

Congrats to Shruthi for joining as Engineering Manager at Docusign! I admire how Shruthi showed up with vulnerability in our village as she was in an intense life season - flying back and forth for her sick dad, being present for her kids, and nailing her demanding job (got leadership recognition at Adobe and moved into a manager role at Docusign). Thank you for being on this journey with us and inspiring us!

AI gave us new ways to reclaim time and improve our work in September. In October, we’ll strengthen our strategic communication skills and free up bandwidth.

Cheers,
Shivani

P.S. Our newest Career Mama members will join our Slack Village tomorrow (10/1). Please check out their #intros and welcome them 👋

Career Mama newsletter - September 2025