The Mama Bear by Chairman Mom

Newsletter editor Lily here.

If you’re reading this on the day it’s sent, I’m currently in the midst of my little apartment move that I’ve teased for the past couple of weeks. It’s happening. At least, I hope it’s happening; I’m writing this newsletter in the morning right before the chaos kicks off and the movers get here. So who knows what I’ll send y’all next week?

To be completely honest, it hasn’t fully sunken in yet that I’m moving. I have many feelings on the apartment I’m leaving. On the one hand, my roommate Kaitlyn and I didn’t have many options when we were looking in the winter of 2019, so we sort of got stuck with it, in a way. That’s just how the New York City housing market is. And as many long-time readers will recall, we had an absolutely botched move-in—and continued to have issues with our landlord and management for the next two years. Then there’s the fact that there’s been scaffolding over both of our skylights, two of our three main sources of light, for the past six months. Yes, some would say this apartment is bleak. Read more...

Was it after there was no change in gun laws at Sandy Hook? Was that the moment?

When exactly did it become totally OK in America to target hate and “culture wars” on kids? 

Whether it’s kids in cages at the border, kids not being protected at school (if they can even go to school…), kids being the subject of racist tirades from teachers on Zoom, or CHILDREN being the focus of the Right’s campaign against transgender rights, children being the specific target of hate is everywhere right now.  Read more...

Something strange happened yesterday that I’ve never seen in our short five month existence as a digital course company. A full week after our Radical Equality course began, we suddenly had three sign ups!

One reason that has never happened is that we typically close registration and move to a waitlist, and this time we forgot. (Oops.) But that wasn’t the only reason, because in each case, people emailed me to ask if they could still join, and I don’t usually get that many emails a week. One was a referral from a friend in the course. In just one week, this woman found the course so valuable, she was bringing in friends! Read more...

I am writing this from an airport lounge today. How 2019 is that? 

This was not a plan, and I feel like a feral animal who has been put back into civilization. TSA Pre-Check? Don’t I have that? Oh, I can’t just bring a big glug of water on the flight?

Yesterday we were driving our kids back from Palm Springs to San Francisco with the intention of driving back down to Palm Springs today for a week of focused work. Our extremely new car that had no business breaking down (!!!) made it as far as Monrovia.  Read more...

Newsletter editor Lily here.

Welp, I found it: A new late-pandemic obsession. I never got into the sourdough trend a year ago nor learned a new instrument. I’ve largely stuck to the interests I already have for the most part. But last week I wanted something new to watch during my work lunch break and randomly clicked on Netflix’s Formula 1: Drive to Survive, a show all about the world of Formula 1 racing. I can’t believe I’m saying it, but I’m hooked.

If I really think about it, this probably shouldn’t come as a surprise. Despite the fact that it’s largely a dangerous and male-dominated d*ck measuring contest filled with oodles of money, I do love any sport that’s fast-paced, at least a tad dangerous, and just sort of ridiculous if you think about it in a meta way. I’m now through two of the three available seasons, and I’ve even begun following the race updates online. The first Grand Prix of the 2021 season starts this weekend, so it looks like that’s what I’ll be keeping track of as I pack up my apartment and deal with the usual issues that come with a move. (So far, we’ve run into a little trouble and it’s nice to unwind!) Read more...

We talk about how hard motherhood is and, yes, it is. There is so much pressure and judgement all around us. So many calls we have to make feel impossible in the moment. Every generation’s psychologists and columnists love to tell us how moms macro f’ed up: You boosted their self esteem too much! 

It feels so often like we can’t win. Like it’s impossible to get it all right. 

I’m going through something incredibly painful right now and existentially destabilizing. I don’t really want to talk about it. But it’s given me an important realization: Yes, your kids may complain about you, they may talk about you in therapy as adults, they may roll their eyes at you…a lot. In fact, it’s pretty much guaranteed they will. If Oprah had kids, her kids would do this. Beyonce’s kids will do this.  Read more...

I am so excited about our next course, Boss up Your Financial Game with Valerie Villarreal and Serafina Miller. 

I’ve been editing the videos, and they are absolutely chock full of information on everything: Negotiating more money, getting over the emotional baggage of money, how to invest, how to save, how to budget, how to invest in real estate without owning property, how to do more than make it, how to build wealth, How to build wealth for your kids and stop the financial illiteracy cycle with your kids. In six weeks, every question you are embarrassed to ask will be answered. You will rip off every Band-Aid. You will keep every broken New Year’s resolution about money.  Read more...

I just got done with a phenomenal office hours for Catherine Connors’ Ready Set Write course. Because everyone is working on things that are so HUMAN and writing is so heartfelt and vulnerable, the things that come up in this course are really profound. 

One thing I found myself saying to someone who was stuck was that I find in writing that “the answer is often the obstacle.” I have never phrased it like that before but it’s my ultimate writing hack. I find that every time I am blocked, something isn’t working, a story won’t come together, it’s only when I step back and look at the obstacle that I see what the story often is.  Read more...

It’s a big day for us here! Our fourth online course, Radical Equality with Kim Scott and Trier Bryant, starts today! (We’ll leave registration open ‘til office hours Wednesday because we know there are always some last-minute FOMO sign-ups!) 

Meantime, we are announcing our newest course which I’m SO EXCITED about and also taking personally. (Are you noticing a theme? Every course we launch has to be so good that I would pay for it as a first hurdle!) 

Boss Up Your Financial Life with Valerie Villarreal and Serafina Miller is about as Chairman Mom as a course could get.  Read more...

I am not a big fan of writing about things I hate. Look, people work hard on movies and books and TV shows, and maybe it doesn’t come together in the right way, but they’re still people and they still have feelings! Also, if I’ve already wasted a few hours consuming something, why do I want to waste more time talking about that waste? 

So, I’ll keep this brief: Why didn’t any of you tell me I Care A Lot was AWFUL AND NOT TO WATCH IT!?!?!?!??!!?

If you loved it: Respect, go with God, this isn’t personal, agree to disagree. Glad you enjoyed it, skip down to the links.  Read more...