On Being Hopeful Right Now
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide At this moment of time, I think the historian and philosopher Howard Zinn, who died in 2010, has
March 21, 2022
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide At this moment of time, I think the historian and philosopher Howard Zinn, who died in 2010, has
Written by Vicki Saunders About a year ago I told the team I need a break. Like a big one. 6 months? The team didn’t
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide What can I do, we do, about the suffering in the Ukraine? That’s the question that has haunted
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide via Instagram @iburobin As I write, Russia is still attacking the Ukraine, raining down terror and creating suffering
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide Pismo Beach State Park Grove, Credit: Lisa Damerel / Xerces Society I’ve lived in California for over 40
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide Art by Asja Boroš Recently I was talking to the Mindset Learning Track groups at SheEO about how
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide On this day that celebrates love in all its forms (or at least that’s how I think of
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide Photo by Rose-Lynn Fisher Part of what we’re doing at SheEO is unlearning behaviors and mindsets that do
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide Photo by David Ghilardi I’ve been holding onto this graphic for a year. As a person who excels
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide My whole life has been a quest for wisdom. Given the chaos, suffering and greed in the world,
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide Graphic: Albany Public Library Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the U.S. It’s disheartening to see
Written by Ecko Aleck, Global Indigenous Lead Photo provided by Adam Ziorio Photography featuring Ecko Aleck of Sacred Matriarch Productions. The Gregorian New Year has started. There is
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide Graphic: Albany Public Library We’re 10 days into 2022 and already the year is full of challenges. So
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide Image: Patricia Ariel This is the last work week for SheEO before we take our annual 3-week rest.
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide I recently came across a wonderful author named Donna Ashworth. In her book To The Women, she writes
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide I’ve always said I’m a person with goals or dreams. And mostly that’s true. I’ve navigated through life
Written by Activator Dana Marlatt When I was in University I used to write every scholarship essay based on Olivia Pope from Scandal. I was
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide I’ve been doing a lot of thinking these days about money. Or more accurately, wealth. Back when money
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide Image source: Conscious Conversations Last week, I shared a model on purpose called Ikigai and offered a variety
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide The media is filled these days with news of The Great Resignation. It seems that Covid gave us
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide One of the most important things I ever learned from Buddhist psychology is the concept of the three
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide Do you ever find yourself thinking the same thoughts over and over despite your desire not to? Whether
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide Image source: Macrina Busato // Lotus Fruit I always pay attention when I hear something three times. Especially
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide I was standing on a stage in front of 4000 women giving an hour talk. It was a
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide It continues to be the number one topic of conversation with everyone I speak to these days—exhaustion, lack
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide “They are supposed to be our partners but they are going behind our backs to a third party
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide Image: @happywholeway As we experience the ending of summer 2021 (or winter, depending on what hemisphere you live
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide One of the topics that comes up the most in my supporting women-led entrepreneurs is self-confidence. As in,
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide I am a pack rat for transformative mindset tools and techniques. Whenever I read about something I think
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide I’ve been working with startup founders for the past 20 years. So, when Vicki Saunders invited me to
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide Last week I featured the wonderful effects nature has on us from a scientific point of view. Today
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide I’ve been hearing more and more about the positive effects nature has on our well-being. But it was
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide Life is amazing in its web of connections and synchronicities. Recently someone sent me a blog by American
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide Photo by Daria Sannikova When the pandemic hit last year and I was wondering how to support SheEO
“To listen, to feel—is to Indigenize. The shattering of systems, which is what we’re in right now. It’s very uncertain. It’s uncomfortable. It’s scary, but
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide In her beautifully soulful book Kitchen Table Wisdom, Rachel Naomi Remen tells a story of a surly teenage
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide Yesterday on our SheEO team call, one of our teammates said, “There is so much to mourn.” She
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide I love reading something that makes me aware of my habitual mindset, the autopilot my mind uses to
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide June is LGBTQ+ Pride month and I can’t let it pass without honoring the occasion. It’s always been
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide Image by @ohhappydani As a white woman with a lot of privilege, I’ve been thinking a lot about
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide Last month, I wrote about umbuntu, the idea that we exist in connection to one another and that
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide I learned an important practice at the SheEO global summit this year from social justice doula Lutze Segu—to
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide One of my SheEO Ventures was having a challenge with a business colleague and was asking my help
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide We white Westerners have so much to learn from our Indigenous sisters and brothers around the world. Virtually
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide Mission II by Catherine Nelson This month, I find my mind continually turning to the question of how
“Who you are is exactly what the world needs right now they are starving for models of inspiration. And you will know that you’re on
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide How do we get beyond our Western either/or models of thinking that are destroying the earth to embrace
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide That’s the central question of her heart that led Robin Wall Kimmerer, a member of the Potawatomi First
“Strategic planning can no longer just be about dollars and cents. If you’re not thinking about how antiracism is part of your strategic planning, if
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide Contemplating the concept of abundance/sufficiency this month, I was delighted to get a copy of SheEO Activator Harriet
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide “Abundance is not something we acquire, it’s something we tune into.”—Wayne Dyer I’ve been exploring abundance versus scarcity
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide “Sufficiency….isn’t a measure of barely enough or more than enough. Sufficiency isn’t an amount at all. It is
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide Credit: Pierre Jean-Louis (@pierre_artista) At the heart of co-creation, one of the SheEO values, is the act of
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide It’s so easy to fall into despair at the fate of the world and stay stuck in isolation.
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide It’s as if a dam has burst. I’ve spent the past week hearing from AAPI women I know
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide Last week I wrote about how to use the physics of conscious creation as described by Robert Fritz
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide This month at SheEO, we are focusing on our value of cocreation and in future blogs I’ll explore
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide “We are not helpless victims in the grasp of some supernatural force. We were active participants in the
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide Whenever we have discussions about Radical Generosity with SheEO Activators or staff, people always raise the issue of
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide Twenty-eight years ago, my coworkers and I wrote a little book called Random Acts of Kindness, which spawned
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide Since I was very young, I have been obsessed with the cultivation of wisdom—what does it mean to
“Norms, as those of us who work on gender norms know, are one of the most powerful intractable things because nobody even sees them. Right?
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide This month at SheEO, we are focusing on delving deeper into our core value of Radical Generosity, the
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide I have been an advocate of cultivating a growth mindset, the ability to see challenges as opportunities to
“This is a really profound crisis. It’s a crisis of an old form of production and consumption in the economy. It’s the crisis of its
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide Pretty much everyone I talk to these days describes a similar thing when I ask how they are:
“People are always like, ‘What is the Zone of Freaking Out?’ Yes, it is the ZOFO. It is the opposite of the comfort zone. And
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide “We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand…and melting like a snowflake. Let us
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.” –Aristotle I believe
Mindset Monday written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide As you are well aware, it’s been a hard year. Covid and its effects on our
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide Last week I wrote about the power of gratitude to bring us happiness and give us a sense
“A lot of people associate innovation with like disruption and this whole thing. It’s not about disruption. It’s literally about moving this old world to
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide One day, quite a while ago, I wrote a little book called Attitudes of Gratitude. At the time,
“Enthusiasm is incredibly infectious, and people just want to ride that wave. It makes you feel good. That’s kind of how I roll in the
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide It’s two weeks after the U.S. election, with all of its lessons of where we are as a
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide You don’t need me to convince you that we are living in and through profoundly uncertain times. The
“When you show up, as your whole self and you’re like I’m here to give and I’m here to ask. Both kind of in circular
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide As you read this, it is the eve of the U.S. Presidential election. Who will win? What will
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide In addition to dealing with all the challenges in our outer world right now, most of us also
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide One of the founding principles of SheEO, which we are hopefully honoring more and more, is to learn
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide Maybe it’s because I live in a fire zone in the US, but right now times feel very
Written by MJ Ryan, SheEO Development Guide When the white women of SheEO did the Race2Dinner conversation with Regina Jackson and Saira Rao (https://race2dinner.com/) about
When I hit 40, I changed my life. It was a convergence of a number of painful circumstances that forced me into it, but mostly
“Worry is like a rocking chair: it gives you something to do but never gets you anywhere.” – Erma Bombeck Somewhere in my distant childhood,
So many of us are under a lot of stress from our external circumstances. We don’t need to pile onto that with our self-talk. How
From the beginning, the name SheEO was either a love it or lose it vibe “Brilliant!”, said many. Redefining a new way of being a
Dia Bondi is a U.S. SheEO Activator who is the most kick-ass communications catalyst/speaker/coach I know. A few months ago, she wrote a newsletter that
Need some words of encouragement today? One of my go-to inspirational writers these days is Glennon Doyle, author of several books, including Untamed, her new
I’m not ready to let go of the theme of Love and Fear quite yet. It feels so important for where we are as a
It’s so easy these days, at least for me and those I am speaking to, to get focused on all that is wrong and fall
Civil rights activist and U.S. Congressperson John Lewis was laid to rest last Friday. He asked that on the day of his funeral, the
Last week I talked about why love and fear are, at base, our two possible responses to life. I was writing, as I usually do,
Recently at SheEO HQ and among the women-led Ventures who have been funded by the global group of radically generous women we call Activators, we
“Anxious.” “Exhausted.” “Sad.” “Depressed.” “Overwhelmed.” These are the feelings I am hearing about over and over as I talk to clients and friends. One thread
By MJ Ryan I’ve been reflecting a lot on comfort recently—the white privilege of comfort and the knowledge that to change anything, we white folks
By MJ Ryan June is LBGTQ+ Pride month, something that has been celebrated for the past 50 years in my neck of the woods, the
By MJ Ryan Sitting here thinking about the Black Lives Matter movement and what those of us who are white can do to be better
By MJ Ryan Each and every one of us has something unique to contribute to the world. I truly believe that. In fact, I have
This podcast was recorded live from the Wisdom Room Stage at the #SheEOGlobalSummit hosted in Toronto, March 9 and 10, 2020. In this session moderated
By Vicki Saunders Building a new world starts with Wisdom from the Ages My first real connection to Indigenous culture came in New Zealand in
By MJ Ryan, Featuring Steph Speirs, Co-Founder of SheEO Venture Solstice From MJ Ryan: SheEO is dedicated to supporting new mindsets and new models to
By MJ Ryan There is nothing in my mind these days except the pain of the racial violence that the U.S. in particular is experiencing
By MJ Ryan How do we cultivate wise action to take advantage of the moment we are in, especially in this time of stress and
By MJ Ryan I’ve seen a lot of articles about Zoom fatigue recently. About how all our zooming—up to about 200 million meetings a day
By MJ Ryan Yes, a lot of us are more tired than usual. There are lots of reasons, especially for those juggling kids at home
This podcast was recorded live from the Wisdom Room Stage at the #SheEOGlobalSummit hosted in Toronto, March 9 and 10, 2020. This session showcases SheEO
By MJ Ryan One of the guiding principles of SheEO is to learn from the wisdom of the ages. I have been seeing this message
By MJ Ryan Today, I am offering an excerpt from an email that Steph Speirs, CEO of SheEO Venture Solstice wrote to her community recently.
By MJ Ryan Covid, climate chaos, political unrest….I think we can all agree that we are living in unprecedented times, full of uncertainty and upheaval.
Chloe and Florence Van Dyke are the real-life sisters behind Chia Sisters, producers of New Zealand’s most nutritious and sustainable juices and seeds. In this
by M.J. Ryan I am copying in full an post by New York state psychologist Eileen Feliciano because I found it the best summary of
by M.J. Ryan If there is one thing that I work with most of my clients on, including SheEO ventures, it’s what typically people call
What do you do when you can’t “do” anything? When it’s out of your control? When someone close to you whom you love is suffering?
by M.J. Ryan Today marks day one of the Global Summit, a celebration of 5 years in Canada for SheEO and the launch of the
by M.J. Ryan We at SheEO practice radical generosity, which I define as giving with no strings attached, no expectation of some kind of personal
by MJ Ryan One of my most important teachers is Jack Kornfield. I have studied with him, on and off, for the past 35 years.
by MJ Ryan One of the new mindsets I have the most difficulty with is the concept of interbeing, defined as inter-dependent co-existence. I mean,
by MJ Ryan When I was younger, I really thought of my body as a taxicab for my brain. Then as a senior in college,
by MJ Ryan I’ve come to understand that change fundamentally only requires three things: desire—I really want to do this; intention: I am going to
by MJ Ryan It’s the end of January. How are you doing on the changes you committed to at New Years? If you’re like most
By: MJ Ryan We’re doing something new at SheEO this year. Each Monday, I’ll be sharing perspectives, tools, and wisdom I’m encountering about the mindsets
Neige and Pippa Blair are building Routine on their own terms. In this episode of the SheEO.World podcast, hear how they grew from arts markets
Ilana Ben-Ari was working on a design-school project when she learned there was a huge social and emotional gap between the visually impaired and the
At the end of 2014, Abeego founder Toni Desrosiers had to lay off almost her entire team just before the holidays. Two weeks later, Abeego
What does it mean to be radically generous? Komal Minhas, investor, entrepreneur and SheEO Activator, sits down with SheEO founder Vicki Saunders to define what
SheEO Ventures are solving complex social problems and solving for the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals); their business models include practices like paying living wages, hiring inclusively, sourcing from women-owned suppliers, using clean energy, and reducing environmental waste.
Despite coaches being game-changers for many entrepreneurs, most women don’t engage one- often because we put ourselves last. We know that women entrepreneurs face different
Imagine this scenario. You’re seeking assistance for your new venture and the person you’re sharing your needs or challenges with makes the suggestion that you
You’re invited to join THOUSANDS of Activators and Ventures across FOUR countries for ONE live event. This is the first LIVE global simulcast in
Self-Organization New power operates differently, like a current. It is made by many. It is open, participatory, and peer-driven. It uploads, and it distributes. Like
What happens when you introduce 1,000 teenage girls to 3,000 radically generous women? Mind-blowing insight into transformative career and working possibilities, a radically better world,
At SheEO, Radical Generosity starts with bringing women together. They are corporate executives, entrepreneurs, leaders in their industries, mothers, grandmothers, and daughters. They come from
I wish I could say I was surprised by the results of a recently published survey by Actua, a Canadian charity focused on inspiring youth
Today is a big day. The Great American Eclipse is a time to manifest what you want for the next six months. Take a moment today to dream big (as big as you can for yourself and/or your business), write it down and put it out there. We will be dreaming today individually and as a team.
SheEO is a radically redesigned ecosystem that supports, finances + celebrates women + non-binary folks.