Summertime, and the livin’ is easy…said no working parent, ever.

Your kids probably see it differently. Summer time is more relaxed, whether it’s days at camp, at the pool, or on the road.

You might have seen it differently in the B.C. (before children) era, back when Summer Fridays meant luxuriously long weekends to kick back with friends.

If we put aside the logistical nightmare which is summer parenting, there’s a deep truth: having a slower “season” (shorter work days, less stress, more fun) is a great way to recharge.

At the end of a slower season, you come back refreshed and ready to tackle bigger challenges.

And yet, the modern world of work often treats you like you should be constantly producing.

The irony is that attempting to work like this is often terrible for your productivity and your motivation.

So, in this week’s episode of the podcast, we’ll explore the concept of Seasonal Productivity - of defining slower and faster-paced seasons within your work to create better work-life alignment and produce better results at work.

What You'll Learn:

• How “seasonal” work habits can prevent burnout and improve your productivity

• Working with the natural ebb and flow of your work and family “seasons”

• Managing perceptions around your work ethic

• My summer podcast break

To learn more, visit The Mental Offload.

In a busy world, where most of us are overstretched, it’s easy to end the day feeling drained, guilty, and anxious.

You might hope that changing jobs, using your time better, or starting that exercise routine is the answer.

But Dr. Emma Seppälä, director of the Women’s Leadership Program at Yale School of Management, wants us to address the deeper issues at play.

“You can have all the money and power in the world, and still feel bound on the inside…still be ruled by fear, still feel small.”

People often stand in their own way without realizing it.

The answer, she says, lies in reclaiming our “sovereignty”, that internal locus of power and control over our self, our emotions, our relationships and more.

It’s not just a conceptual exercise. Becoming sovereign is key to everything from not taking on work that will burn you out, staying present at the end of a long work day, to how you deal with setbacks and fear.

In this episode, we’ll explore what it means to be truly sovereign over yourself, and why this is the key to living the life you want and fulfilling your highest potential.

What You'll Learn:

• Why Dr. Seppälä says many of us are in a toxic relationship with ourselves, and the magic question to change that

• Conditioning your nervous system to calm down

• Crushers, Sacrificers, and Stars: 3 types of high-achievers, and how to turn yourself into a Star

• The link between intuition, authenticity, and heeding your “inner alarm bells”

• Becoming Sovereign over yourself, emotions, relationships, and more

To learn more, visit The Mental Offload.

Plenty of think pieces have taken on the tradwife trend.

And a fair bit of ink has been spilled over that Harrison Butker commencement speech.

And tradwives might be fairly compared to their vintage counterparts, the Stepford Wives.

And yet, there’s something deeper…and maybe more sinister going on here.

It’s an alarming notion that’s sucking in plenty of high-achieving, feminist women. And driving us into burnout.

This episode is raw, thought-provoking, and real.

What You'll Learn:

• How the tradwife playbook is straight outta Stepford

• The alarming way high-achieving, feminist women can end up as Stepford Moms

• How we reclaim ourselves in a society that expects women to do it all

To learn more, visit The Mental Offload.

Ever struggled to get your message heard at work?

Maybe it’s in your boss’s leadership team meeting, where your input is minimized and the boys’ club is busy talking over you.

Maybe it’s when your voice shakes with nerves as you present the roadshow deck to challenging stakeholders.

Or maybe it’s at your mid-year, where you get feedback that others don’t see you as “presenting authoritatively.”

Thanks, boss, for that ambiguous feedback…what do I do about that?!

Dealing with this stuff at work can throw your confidence for a loop.

If you’re a leader, you want to sound like a leader.

Claire Fry has seen it all. As a voice actor and vocal confidence coach, she’s an expert in how to use your voice to confidently get your message across at work.

She joins me on this week’s episode of the podcast to break down a few simple techniques that you can use today to increase your confidence, improve your executive presence, and get your message heard.

What You'll Learn:

• Are women’s voices heard differently? What’s with the unhelpful feedback about how we sound?

• Secrets to communicating with more executive presence

• How to leverage the 3 W’s for getting your message across more confidently

• Using your unique voice to get heard at work

To learn more, visit The Mental Offload.

In many companies, June means one thing: mid-year season is here.

Many leaders give mid year performance reviews short shrift.

It’s easy to make this mistake. Mid-year doesn’t feel as important as year-end, and yet it still has a way of weighing down your to-do list: there’s plenty of paperwork, feedback requests, and the like to complete.

But it is a mistake to under-prepare for mid-year – both as a leader and as an employee.

Mid year performance reviews, from my perspective, is often more important than you might think.

Preparing well for your mid-year can change the trajectory of your year at work. Taking the time now to prepare for your mid-year review will pay dividends throughout the rest of the year.

What You'll Learn:

• The 3 things you should give as a leader and get as an employee at mid-year

• Why your mid-year is more – and less - important than you think

• How to use your mid-year to manage up

To learn more, visit The Mental Offload.

Mistakes. The word itself makes a high-achiever cringe.

Sure, we all know that logically, “mistakes happen to the best of us.”

But when you’re the one making the mistake?

It feels like the worst.

And now, you’ve got two problems: the original mistake, and being knocked off your game.

The original problem is now compounded. You might spend weeks or even months in your own head, worrying about the screw-up. Ruminating on who’s judging you and how it might come back to bite you.

Your inner critic will sap your confidence more than any mistake.

What differentiates the highest performers is not a lack of errors. It’s how fast they get back on their game after a mistake.

This is a skill you can learn.

Whether it’s a minor “oops” moment or a major fumble, we’ll dive into how to gracefully recover from a mistake at work.

So you can lead with the relaxed confidence you deserve.

What You'll Learn:

• Why cultivating an anti-fragile approach is useful

• A framework to help you step out of self-criticism, and into useful action

• 2 steps to recover from big and small mistakes at work

To learn more, visit The Mental Offload.

Are you drowning in email?

Before you’ve even gotten dressed in the morning, your mind is already on the 117 emails that are sitting in your inbox. Waiting on a response.

Email is usually one of the first things you look at in the morning, and one of the last things you look at at night.

It seems impossible to get (and stay) on top of it.

Email and collaboration tools have transformed the way we work.

Sometimes, it’s for the better: hybrid, asynchronous work on dispersed teams wouldn’t be possible without it.

But much of the time, it’s the struggle of the modern sisyphus: spending days pushing email out of your inbox…only to wake up and have to do it over, and over again.

Not only that, but it ends up crowding out the time we need to move forward your actual strategic priorities.

Taking control over how you manage your inbox is one of the best things you can do to create more sustainable and successful work habits.

This week, we’ll explore how to make it happen.

What You'll Learn:

• 3 principles for successfully managing email

• Why the “vigilant and diligent” mindset keeps you stressed, anxious and spread too thin

• Actionable tips for playing email offense vs. defense, and balancing email and strategic priorities

• What it takes to win the game of email “hot potato”

To learn more, visit The Mental Offload.

Mother’s Day.

It’s billed as the ultimate celebration of the work of mothers.

And in a society that often gives so little acknowledgement, this one day takes on big importance: a recognition of how much you’ve given to others throughout the rest of the year.

We want the day to be perfect.

But so often, it’s a major letdown. A source of strife, even.

No, the Mother’s Day hangover isn’t what you get from too many mimosas at brunch (okay, well, that’s one kind of hangover).

We’re talking about the emotional hangover.

The nagging feelings of sadness, resentment, or downright anger that can follow you around after a disappointing Mother’s Day.

A big part of it? That mothers are offered so little in return for a year of hard work at home.

A nice brunch and a homemade thank you card are so small in comparison to all you do. So, when you don’t even get that, how are you supposed to react?!

Whether your Mother’s Day was a day to remember for all the right reasons or all the wrong ones, tune in for an exploration of what mothers truly deserve, and how we can get more of it.

What You'll Learn:

• The no-win societal expectations that leave too many mothers with a Mother’s Day hangover

• How your “emotional hangover” provides important data, and what to do with it

• Why you should consider planning your own Mother’s Day (even if your partner gets it 99% right)

To learn more, visit The Mental Offload.