This one is partly @Oddysey Campbell Oddysey’s fault. 😂❤️ She got us talking about how she’s bringing more music into her community, and it sparked an idea... What if we built a Skoolology playlist together? 🐼 But we're making it a little more interesting. Today, YOU are the DJ. You get to play ONE song for all of us. 💃 Make us dance. 🎤 Make us sing. ❤️ Make us feel something. 🌎 Bring us something from your part of the world. 😂 Or make us seriously question your musical taste. Any decade. Any genre. Any language. BUT WAIT... Apparently Skoolology has also installed an imaginary online karaoke machine. 🎤😂 So here's the real question: What song are you adding to the Skoolology playlist...and would you actually sing it at Skoolology Karaoke? 😂 Choose your status: 🎤 HAND ME THE MIC — I'm singing it! 😬 ONLY WITH BACKUP SINGERS 😂 ABSOLUTELY NOT. I'm the DJ, remember? Drop your song + artist + karaoke status below. 👇 And yes...I said ONE song. Let's see how long that rule lasts. 😂

Hi Everyone!! As I'm getting ready to bring speakers into my first summit, I thought I'd share a little of what I've actually been working on behind the scenes, and hopefully help anyone who might be thinking about hosting a summit out with some of this. Because I had NO idea how many decisions would happen before a single speaker ever stepped onto a virtual stage. 😂 And, to be fully transparent, I've been in a 9 week training program to learn how to launch and host a summit! So here we go... so far, I've: ✨ 𝗙𝗶𝗴𝘂𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗺𝗶𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗪𝗛𝗢 𝗶𝘁'𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿. I wanted the summit to be really aligned with the focus of my community because that's where I'm hosting it. That eventually became 🫆𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗛𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗦𝘂𝗺𝗺𝗶𝘁, focused on what makes our (midlife women's) experience, judgment, creativity and other human strengths even more valuable in the age of AI. ✨ 𝗦𝗰𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗺𝗶𝘁. How many days? What types of topics fit? What kinds of sessions? What speaker/sponsorship options will I offer? How much am I willing to spend on ads? What does the attendee experience look like? There were a LOT more decisions here than I expected. ✨ 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝘁 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗮 𝟵𝟬-𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗺𝗶𝘁 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻. Using a timeline provided to me in my training, I worked backward from summit week and mapped out speaker recruitment, applications, asset collection, promotion, tech checks, recordings and all the other things that need to happen between “I'm going to host a summit!” and actually hosting one. 😂 ✨ 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀. Instead of just inviting people and hoping their topic fits, I created an application around the summit theme, audience and the kind of experience I want attendees to have. ✨ 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗿 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗹𝘀. I've created a full Speaker Prospectus website that explains the summit, who will be in the room, the types of topics I'm looking for, expectations, deadlines and what I'm trying to create with the event. ✨ 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗿 𝗛𝘂𝗯 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝗦𝗸𝗼𝗼𝗹. This is where accepted speakers will get everything they need without me emailing or dm'ing different documents and links all over the place. 😂

This weekend in a big travel weekend in the US, so hope everyone stays safe and calm. Atlanta airport alone is projecting 2+ million people over the next few days. We'll still be responding in the community, but we might be a little slower than usual. FYI- The first Labor Day Parade in the US was in 1882.

I shared a shorter version of this somewhere else this morning, but I kept thinking about it. Because I realized something. Some of the most valuable things you’ve shared with us haven’t been polished wins. They’ve been things like... “I tried this. It didn’t work.” “I thought I wanted this, but now I’m not so sure.” “Here’s what my members are actually doing.” “Something feels off, but I can’t quite put my finger on it.” And occasionally... “I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing next.” 😂 I’m also grateful for the quieter people here, too. The ones reading. Watching. Thinking. Trying something in their own community. Taking what they need and leaving what they don’t. Maybe you rarely comment. Maybe we have no idea what you’re experimenting with behind the scenes. You’re part of this, too. ❤️ Participation doesn’t always look like posting. And the conversations we DO get to have have changed some of our thinking, too. There are things Todd and I were pretty sure about when we started Skoolology that we see differently now. Things we’ve changed. Things we’ve simplified. Things we thought mattered that turned out not to matter nearly as much as something else. And I’m quite sure there are still things we’re wrong about. 😂🤫🔬 Maybe that’s one of the things I love most about treating Skoolology as a research lab. We can have hypotheses. We can bring our experience. We can study what seems to work. But then real people enter the room. And we have to pay attention. Building WITH people doesn’t mean doing everything everyone asks. It means letting what we learn from people influence what we build next. That requires us to listen. To notice. To question our assumptions. And sometimes to say, “Well... apparently THAT wasn’t it.” 😂 So today I’m grateful for all of you. The people who share the messy middle. The people who ask the awkward questions. The people who challenge an idea or tell us when something isn’t working. The people who let us peek behind their builds.

In the Build is where we bring the work that is still...well...in the build. 😂 Not just the finished version. The graphic you’re deciding between. The offer you’re testing. The post that got crickets. The community you’re getting ready to open. The idea that makes perfect sense in your head but isn’t quite translating yet. The thing that WORKED and now you’re wondering why. The little win that happened before you’ve reached the finish line. This is the messy middle. And we think there’s a whole lot we can learn from each other here. When we created In the Build, we kept coming back to four questions: What are you trying? What are you wondering? What would help? What are you learning? A few of you have since reminded us of something important... Sometimes knowing you’re welcome to post isn’t enough. It helps to know how to start. So if the blank post box is staring back at you, here’s a little shape you can borrow: What I’m building: Who it’s for: Where I am right now: What I’m working on next: What would help: That’s it. Use all five. Use two. Ignore the whole thing and tell us the story your way. 😂 This is a starting point, not a formula. Explorer Panda would approve. 🐼🧭 You don’t need the whole map. You just need to show us where you are right now. Then keep us in the build. You don’t need to create a brand-new post every time something happens. Come back to your original Build and tell us: What I tried: What happened: What I’m wondering now: Over time, that thread becomes something pretty cool. It becomes a record of the decisions, experiments, wrong turns, little wins, surprises, and changes that got you from there to here. And those are surprisingly hard to see when you’re the one doing the building. When someone lets you into their build, come alongside them. This may be my favorite part. You do NOT need to have the answer. Ask a question. Tell them what you notice. Share something you tried. Look at the graphic. Click through the page.