The Mama Bear by Chairman Mom

Newsletter editor Lily here.

Welp, remember when I said a month ago that I was just going to wing it for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) in November after my planning timeline didn’t work out?

Ha! Uh, that didn’t really happen.

In fact, the whole thing was kind of a wash.

But instead of beating myself up about it, I’m extending more than a little grace.

I’ll cut myself some slack in the sense that I’m a freelancer transitioning gigs right now, where I’m finishing work on something big and moving on to something big. (As always, don’t worry: My writing for ChairmanMe is staying right where it is!) The problem, as I’ve discovered, is that right now I’m doing a ton of work since these gigs overlap for two more weeks. Read more...

OH LORD.

So y’all know these facts, right?

1. I cry at every Disney/Pixar movie and many of the shorts.
2. Our family tradition is to see whatever Disney/Pixar movie just came out on Thanksgiving before dinner because I don’t cook and I can do what I want that day.
3. Jennifer Lee is a straight up, freaky, brilliant movie, story telling witch. 
4. Encanto came out last week. 

I don’t really know how to talk about this without spoilers or getting too deep into my personal 2021 family nightmare, but I went to the movies on Thanksgiving aiming to have the usual Disney sobfest. 

I WAS NOT PREPARED FOR WHAT FOLLOWED. 

Let me put it this way: You know how the shorts before the movie are frequently tied to the movie? Well, the short was about generational trauma and breaking the cycle of abuse as told through racoons.  Read more...

Hi!

I have a hard time saying “Happy Thanksgiving” while living on beautiful, once-sacred Indigenous land that my ancestors stole and more recent ancestors have spent centuries lying and gaslighting everyone about. Not to mention, watching so much of that land burn every year because we didn’t respect it nearly as much as the people we stole it from. 

So how about “Happy gratitude week”? Because despite the problematic everything of Thanksgiving™, the act of dropping everything and gathering once a year around nothing more than a meal and reflecting on everything we have been given is so powerful to me. I love sitting with Paul and my kids, and friends when friends are involved, and other family when other family is involved, and just sharing course after course, talking about what we love most and what we cherish most in the world.  Read more...

Is it just me or has the watch word of the last six months become BOUNDARIES? 

Boundaries are everywhere and everything anyone I know is talking about. Whether it’s boundaries to shove apart work and life, which hopelessly collapsed on itself last year. Whether it’s boundaries from toxic family members. Whether it’s boundaries to protect your own very necessary self-care. 

Boundaries have become the ultimate luxury item in 2022. 

But here’s the thing about boundaries. They are always, always, always a negotiation and a work in progress. Just like the boundaries between nations, there are times our boundaries need to be permeated. That weekend when you have to work. That day that your kid needs you so much, you have to turn off your Zoom camera and just comfort them. The time when your toxic family leeches back into your life, because, sh*t, it’s a family emergency and you are still in the same family. The, say, two months when you all have to live in hotels because of a flood in your house and so NO ONE has boundaries anymore.  Read more...

Newsletter editor Lily here.

Ah, we’ve reached the three days before Thanksgiving, which are often some of the busiest days of the year.

There’s a flurry of chaos as we all try get everything done before the four-day weekend. Not to mention, some people leave early or just take off the entire week from work, which can make the situation even more stressful depending on your office.

Personally, I’m in a weird place, as I’m currently sprinting through my to-do list for the next two-and-a-half days while also hanging out in the very serene apartment where my mom lives. It’s an odd juxtaposition that I haven’t quite grasped. Read more...

I know I say this everytime. 

But our course on How to Be Self-Promotional is really one of my favorite ones we’ve ever done. In the last two weeks, the office hours have been full of dramatic stories of the opportunity that floods at you when you learn to and have the discipline to ask for what you want and tell the world what you can do for it. 

This course has had a profound impact on me, and I thought I was already pretty good at this stuff. I can’t say much more about this now but following some of the material in the course has led to two multi-billion dollar companies chasing us about potential partnerships in recent weeks. It’s almost like some of the witchcraft from the Women’s Work course is seeping into this one.   Read more...

“It’s outside!”

“I love this airport!” 

“This is the cutest little airport!” 

Just a few of the things I’m overhearing with delight as I sit outside TSA in the Palm Springs Airport. Honestly, how many airports make people this happy just after they clear security? 

I am completely going native on this whole “living in Palm Springs” thing. 

We have met so many fascinating people in the last few months. Everyone has a unique story about what brought them here, and I gotta say, it’s nice that I haven’t met a single other startup founder. Architects, restaurateurs, hotel execs, music festival owners, child actors, Oscar-winning composers. People who used to have Fortune 500 C-level jobs but just decided “that’s enough now.”  Read more...

Newsletter editor Lily here.

I’ve always been a Taylor Swift fan. I’m not a full-fledged Swiftie who chases every Easter egg or conspiracy theory, but I’ve loved her music since early high school and have really enjoyed following the arc of her career, even the messy bits.

Admittedly, I didn’t really listen to her fourth album Red that much when it originally came out almost a decade ago; I was a freshman in college at the time and too preoccupied with trying to make friends and getting involved in petty student government drama to really pay attention to it. Read more...

Newsletter editor Lily here.

I really loved Sarah’s essay yesterday about what it means to be “home.” It’s something I’ve always struggled to explain my entire life.

Technically I was born and originally raised in New Jersey, but given that my family moved to Florida before I was even done with elementary school, I’ve always told people that Jacksonville’s my hometown. It’s the place where I grew up and the foundation of my adolescence.

Moreover, my many issues and traumas and struggles in Jacksonville are a big part of who I am today, far more than what I remember of my time in New Jersey. I have a simultaneous emotional attachment and detachment to Jacksonville that I just don’t have with my actual hometown. Read more...

I always ask my kids where they’ll say they are “from” when they go out into the world as grown-ups. They still say “San Francisco,” which is important to me. San Francisco is my primary home, my chosen home, and is so wrapped up in my life and my values in a lot of ways. But ultimately it will be their story to tell. Maybe after middle school and high school in the desert, they’ll feel otherwise. 

Home is an interesting word. A powerful word that means so many things to me. Smells, sounds, feelings, memories. Food. People.  Read more...