Well, dear reader, I haven’t been blogging much lately, but I do have updates to share! (Look at me invoking my best Bridgerton voice)

I was recently interviewed for the Passion in Motion podcast. I’m really grateful to Mutsa Makufa for the great conversation, and I’m proud to share it with you. Mutsa is a talented interviewer with several engaging conversations around the massive federal shifts and resulting uncertainty on his channel.

It’s been a busy set of months with continually unfolding change and uncertainty. So many of us were caught under the wheels of change with massive federal cuts that continue to affect current and former federal employees and contractors in unprecedented ways. Please, let’s stick together. We are stronger in numbers, and so many of us are going through the same things. We have old structures to mourn and new structures to build, together.

I have a few upcoming events on my eventbrite page that I’m excited about! There are book events (both online and in-person) for people in career transitions. The book events have been nicknamed the ‘no wrong book’ book discussions because any kind of book is fair game. We may be reading skill-building books, other nonfiction books, books that offer comfort in myriad ways, or books for escape- and I greedily want to hear about all of them! Bring your stack and give us a tour. See what others are reading.

I also have two Community Healing Conversations planned; one online and one in-person. These are my favorite events because they offer a chance to listen and be heard, build collective peace and resilience, and find better ways to support each other during these times. These conversations inspire and fortify, and they feed my next steps as a community builder. Message me for details about the next in-person Community Healing Conversation in the DC area (it’s not on Eventbrite).

And there is an upcoming Careerchangeapalooza event through DC-AAPOR. I’m really excited about this event, because it grew directly out of a conversation during a Community Healing Conversation about how career support inherently must look different during this time.

All of these events rethink community support and career support to better accommodate our changing times. There are others in the queue through various collaborations. I’m excited to share them as they go live! Please come join us and please help spread the word! This is a space where everyone is welcome. Come as you are and leave feeling better connected and empowered!

On another front, I am in the early stages of building this community building effort and more (think: research consulting and community storytelling) into a small business. This is very new territory for me, and there is a lot to learn and to figure out. I am very open to advice and very grateful to my network for the advice I’ve already received. It’s exciting, but it’s also overwhelming. I’m wrestling with my best and worst selves to creatively envision a box of wonders that fit together nicely under one umbrella and bring my ideas into fruition through some labyrinthine administrative tedium. It’s not how I envisioned my summer; oh, how I want to be jumping into a cold lake on a hot, sunny day and justtttttt floating. But it’s oddly incredibly fulfilling. I want to hear about your experiences building something! What’s your business building story? Pull up a bean bag and join me in the comments!