INSIDE THIS WEEK'S EDITION:

😤TRENDS TO SKIP 🗳️POLITICS & BIZ 🔢NUMBERS THAT MATTER 🔥ONE MOVE
​🛠️TOOL I'M TESTING 🌙COSMIC CORNER

Happy Tuesday, Reader!

April is here and with it comes that particular mix of "new season energy" and "wait, how is it already Q2?!" If your inbox has felt heavier than usual lately, you're not imagining it. There's a lot coming at small business owners right now.

This week we're talking about a leadership trend I want you to retire forever, a policy fight that directly affects women business owners, and an integration that's quietly making my life way easier. Let's dive in 👇

😤TRENDS TO SKIP

The "Accountability Partner" Culture Has Gone Too Far

Here's a trend I'm seeing in entrepreneurship spaces: the idea that you need an accountability partner for every single goal. The CTAs are all around us. Join an accountability group. Find an accountability buddy. Post your accountability check-in. It's everywhere.

Accountability is genuinely useful. However, if you're outsourcing your internal compass to someone else's calendar just to check a box on your to-do list, you've built a system that relies on someone else watching to be effective. Simply, my friend, you haven't built discipline. You've built dependency.

Real momentum comes from developing the capacity to follow through with yourself. That's the harder work - the work that's a part of true self-leadership - and it's the work that actually compounds. Use accountability structures when you need them. But if you're struggling to move forward in your business without one, let's talk.

🗳️POLITICS & BUSINESS OWNERSHIP

They're Coming for the Programs Built for Us

Here's something I want you to know about, even if it makes you a little angry. The current administration's proposed FY2026 budget includes the elimination of 15 of the Small Business Administration's (SBA) 16 entrepreneurial development programs — including Women's Business Centers and SCORE. That's more than 150 Women's Business Centers and 250 SCORE chapters potentially shuttered.

These are free resources that include mentorship, business advising, and training, all available to anyone starting or growing a business, specifically designed to serve women, veterans, and underserved entrepreneurs. Last year alone, the SBA counseled over 744,000 small businesses through these programs and helped create more than 33,000 new ones.

The programs haven't been eliminated yet. Congress pushed back and the final appropriations kept most of them. But the intent was clear, and the fight isn't over. This is the kind of thing that happens quietly while we're busy running our businesses and it's targeting women.

🔢THE NUMBERS THAT MATTER

31% — and Falling

According to Grant Thornton's 2026 Women in Business report, women now hold just 31% of senior leadership roles in the U.S. (down from 34% in 2025 and 35% the year before). That's three consecutive years of decline, at the exact moment companies are loudly claiming they care about gender equity.

Here's what makes this more than a corporate problem: the pipeline starts with us. Every woman who builds a thriving business, leads a team with clarity, or steps visibly into her expertise is shifting what leadership looks like, not just for herself, but for everyone watching. That's not a small thing. That's the whole thing.

Building your business is an act of independence and resistance.

🔥ONE MOVE, ONE MINUTE

Write Down Three Things You're Leading That No One Else Knows About

Not your formal title, or what's on your website. I'm talking about the actual quiet leadership happening in your business every single week. It looks like the culture you're setting, the decisions you're making under pressure, the way you're showing up for your clients even on the hard days.

Write down three of those things. Right now, before you move on.

Lots of coaches encourage gratitude exercises that look like this, so why not use that activity to recognize what you're doing? It's in these moments of quiet leadership that the kind of leader you're becoming is built in. You may not receive applause from anyone else, but damn, your business guides are cheering for you every step of the way - so you should pat yourself on the back, too!

P.S. — If you find yourself wanting a real framework for developing these leadership muscles, that's exactly what The SHE Disruption is built for. We start May 18th. Join the waitlist here.​

🛠️TOOL I'M TESTING

ClickUp + Claude: Your New Task-Creating Dream Team

Ok, I have to tell you about this because it genuinely made me do a little happy dance at my desk. I've started doing account management for an email agency and my client turned me onto this integration: ClickUp + Claude. Quite honestly, it's streamlining things I didn't realize we could streamline.

The short version: you can talk to Claude and have it create tasks directly in ClickUp. Describe what you need to do, give it context, and it builds out the task for you — no copying, no switching tabs, no "wait, where did I put that?" It connects your thinking to your task management in one move. And it's not doing the task for you, but it's shaving off time by creating the tasks so you make sure everything gets done when it needs to.

For those of us who have approximately 47 browser tabs open and a running list of "I'll add that later" sticky notes that never get added later, this is genuinely life-changing. The fewer steps between an idea and an actual task on my list, the more likely it is to actually get done.

Still testing, still in love. More soon.

Unsponsored

🌙COSMIC CORNER

The Sun is Shinning on You!

Today, Tuesday 4/7, the Sun is in its exalted degree (18° Aries). This means TODAY is the perfect day for sharing your work and speaking up about what you want to be known for.