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RaderCo - Weekender Snapshot: a tiny library, visible priorities, and proof before disaster
Published about 2 months ago • 4 min read
Could not have asked for a better welcome...
One of my top three personal priorities this year was launching a Little Free Library at my house.
We were still adding books when Geron, neighborhood teen mentor, walked by and was so excited to find a book he had read and loved as a child. He left with three new books and brought back replacements. Within 20 minutes, a mom drove by only to turn right back around after her kids shouted that there was a library. She has six children, and they also came back with books to donate. Even my neighbor across the street came over an hour later, a happy surprise as she's only spoken to us a couple of times in almost a decade.
THIS is what I wanted.
Both my husband and I got choked up, and we're so excited to see people using it. I can see it outside my window while working, and I can’t be happier. My husband built the library to mimic our house, gray with a purple door and white trim, which makes me love it (and him!) even more.
Work-wise, I spoke to 333 accountants on how to extinguish their email. Laura Austin, CFO, said the session was “well worth the hour spent in class” because it covered practical how-to tips for Outlook and Gmail, plus the bigger-picture communication and culture decisions organizations need to make.
I also spoke with Meeting Professionals International – Carolinas about how to Manage Well Remotely.
One takeaway action:stop acting like Siri and Alexa. Constant availability kills focus time and can disempower employees when you keep saving them instead of letting them solve on their own. Fun fact: Being interrupted with a ping at home is often more disruptive than an in-office interruption because, in person, you get social cues that someone is approaching your desk, or you see the social cue when someone is concentrating.
We're in the home stretch of the Reclaim Your Workday Action Club with Weeks Six and Seven.
Big Ahas and Takeaways included:
Assigning one gatekeeper when on vacation
Blocking the calendar one day before and after my vacation
Screen apnea is real...and several of them had it!
In networking and connection news, I met with former Ambassador to Denmark Jim Cain to celebrate his book Reign of Secrets.
We swapped books and business advice, and I got a peek into the secret life of being an Ambassador.
Then I met and mentored an incredible singer-songwriter and keynote speaker, Chris Hendricks, on how to book more business in the industry.
With Speaker, Musician, and Performer Chris Hendricks
Chris was born with Cerebral Palsy and has been a professional advocate since age 8. He combines music, artistry, and spoken word to create an experience around disability inclusion, resilient mindsets, and vulnerability as a leadership advantage.
Later, I spent a full day at our Speakers With Impact Mastermind quarterly retreat, talking through industry shifts, coaching each other, giving feedback, and helping shape my upcoming pocket guide to prioritization.
Stay tuned...
SWIM retreat fun with my fellow CSP® dynamos! L to R: Justin Jones-Fosu, Stan Phelps, Kevin Snyder, and Raven Solomon.
And hey… we broke the top 150 out of more than 12,200 podcasts in the Management category on Apple Podcasts, which feels affirming and is very worth a tiny happy dance. Cue that beat....
When you get this, I’ll be gearing up for a musical-performance-filled weekend and lots of outdoor time with friend walkie-talkies scheduled, suffering bravely in the North Carolina pollen.
On with the Weekender!
Episode 124: Make Prioritization Visible: A Leadership Diagnostic
PERFORMANCE POWER TIP
Health-Powered Productivity Podcast:
Optimization can look like progress but feel like exhaustion when priorities aren’t visible. This episode is a practical gut-check for leaders who keep asking their teams to do more without making the trade-offs clear.
One Thing You Can Do Now: Freeze one project and determine the trade-off it funds. That’s how you lower decision load and protect capacity.
Think insurance will be super patient and forgiving when you can’t prove you owned that 65-inch TV, baby grand piano, vintage Nike collection, or even your suspiciously large sock inventory?
All of My Things lets you photograph a room, have AI identify and estimate items, and export an insurance-ready report before fire, theft, flooding, or hurricane season turns your memory into a very unreliable witness.
Why Some Conference Sessions Change Behavior (and Others Don’t)
A good session gets applause. A well-designed learning experience changesbehavior. I break down three patterns that separate forgettable events from those that actually improve communication, decision-making, and follow-through.
One Thing You Can Do Now: Block time off after your next training to implement what you've learned.
P.S. I’m considering creating a new course for company learning systems, and before I build anything, I want to hear from you. Can you be a helper and complete this brief survey?
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