🎧 Episode Overview:

This week we’re talking about culture. Not as a vague workplace buzzword, but as something you’re constantly shaping through your behavior, your feedback loops, and your presence. Whether you're a formal leader or not, you're feeding data into your system every single day. This episode is about how to do that more intentionally.

🔑 In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• What makes up a workplace culture (hint: it’s not your policies)
• The three most powerful levers you can pull to shift culture
• Why feedback loops are the lifeblood of a healthy system
• How modeling behavior (even casually) sends strong signals
• The difference between organizational structure and culture—and why it matters

🧠 Key Ideas to Take With You:

• You’re never separate from the culture—you’re shaping it every day.
• Micro-interactions send macro signals about what’s normal.
• Modeling and feedback are culture-change tools, not just leadership fluff.
• The healthiest cultures aren’t perfect—they’re self-correcting.

🎧 How to Get the Most Out of This Episode:

Listen with curiosity about your own patterns. What are you modeling? How are you receiving feedback? And how might those habits be shaping your team’s culture, on purpose or not?

🛠️ Practical Actions You Can Take:

• Ask yourself: What do I want to be more normal in my work culture? Then model that.
• Pay attention to how you receive feedback. Do you get defensive? Over-implement? How can you shift toward curiosity?
• Introduce a 360-style feedback loop (even informally!) by asking peers or your team: “What’s one thing I could start, stop, or continue?”
• Normalize feedback as data and use it to help your system see itself and evolve.

📣 Special Announcements:

If you want to understand your influence inside a system and take more strategic action—check out the Map Your Impact Mini Course. It's only $27 with our podcast code and is packed with value for nurse leaders and change makers.

👉 Resources Mentioned:

• 👉 Take the Map Your Impact Mini Course (use your exclusive podcast discount code-MYI10OFF)
• 📩 Join the System Sunday Newsletter for weekly strategy and behind-the-scenes insights

🎧 Episode Overview:

Yep, we’re talking about dating today. Stick with me.

In this very fun (and surprisingly strategic) episode, I’m walking you through a little experiment my friends and I did this summer: we turned dating into a game. From point systems to profile prep nights to tracking rejection resilience, we gamified the entire experience. And it got me thinking about how any unsavory or tedious process, whether it’s finding love, job searching, or leading change can be made better with intentional systems design.

Gamification isn’t fluff. It’s systems thinking in disguise.

🔑 In this episode, I share:

• How a brunch gripe session turned into a summer-long social experiment
• The full breakdown of “The Dating Game” we created (rules, scoring, prizes)
• The dating app that actually made the process better (shoutout to Breeze)
• Why rewarding effort—not just outcomes—can shift motivation dramatically
• How you can use gamification in your work life (for yourself or your team)

🧠 Big Takeaways:

• Most systems (like work or dating) only reward outcomes—but we stay more engaged when we also reward effort.
• Feedback loops and visible progress are key to staying motivated.
• You don’t need to wait for something to feel fun—sometimes you have to design it to be fun.
• Whether it’s patient recovery, conflict resolution, or giving feedback, gamification can help you and your team keep showing up.

✨ Reflection Questions:

• Where in your life or leadership could you use a little more motivation?
• How could you make your effort feel visible and fun—even in serious or boring areas?
• What “point-worthy” actions would move you toward a goal you're working on?

📲 Stay Connected:

• Subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode
• Join the System Sunday email list for weekly reflections and behind-the-scenes updates
• Follow me on Instagram for more real-life systems thinking in action

🎧 Episode Overview:

This week’s episode is part confession, part coaching. I recorded this late at night after one of the roughest work weeks I’ve had in a while. I had planned to read you my most recent System Sunday email… but as I was preparing, I realized I was living through the exact lesson I’d written about. So instead, I’m sharing the email and the messy reality of what happens when we don’t follow our own advice.

If you’ve ever found yourself skipping your reset rituals, stacking your calendar with back-to-back meetings, or drowning in mental clutter... this one's for you.

🔑 In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• Why reflection isn’t a luxury—it’s a leadership necessity
• The hidden cost of letting your foundational habits slip
• How mental clutter fuels chronic stress (and what to do about it)
• What I did to course-correct a week overloaded with meetings and overwhelm
• Questions you can ask to reset when everything feels like too much

🧠 Key Ideas to Take With You:

• The slow, silent buildup of open loops and unfinished tasks is what burns most nurse leaders out—not the occasional crisis.
• Strategic reflection helps you see patterns and gives you permission to move differently.
• Our brains lie to us when we’re overwhelmed, telling us we don’t have time to pause—when in fact, that pause is exactly what would help.
• You can’t lead well if you’re constantly saying yes without checking if you have the capacity.

🎧 How to Get the Most Out of This Episode:

Listen with an open mind and a compassionate lens toward yourself. Pay attention to any habits or reflection rituals you’ve let go of recently and ask yourself whether they’ve been costing you more than you realized.

🛠️ Practical Actions You Can Take:

• Block 15 minutes to do a reflection check-in: What’s heavy? What’s unfinished? What can wait?
• Audit your calendar for the upcoming week. Where are your “slow leaks”?
• Reinstate one helpful habit you’ve let slide (your version of a weekly reset, we-day, or task triage).
• Use the three reflection prompts from this week’s System Sunday email:

1. If work feels hard, why?
2. What patterns are emerging in your work days?
3. What could shift if you gave yourself permission to pause?

📲 Call to Action:

• Subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss what’s coming next.
• Forward this episode to a friend or teammate who’s feeling overwhelmed.
• Join my System Sunday email list for weekly reflections you won’t get anywhere else.
• Follow me on Instagram

🎧 Episode Overview:

Yes, you read that right- we’re talking about Taylor Swift on the podcast today. Specifically: what we can learn from her about systems thinking, leadership, emotional regulation, and culture change. Whether you’re a full-blown Swiftie or just Swiftie-adjacent, this episode is a creative, thoughtful deep dive into five leadership lessons I pulled from her lyrics, interviews, and approach to impact. This one was just plain fun to make—and I hope it gets you thinking about your own leadership in new ways.

🔑 In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• How Taylor Swift models system pattern awareness (even in her lyrics)
• What “losing your sh*t” has to do with losing your leadership
• Why emotional regulation is a non-negotiable skill for leading change
• How to treat your energy like it’s expensive (because it is)
• Why kindness and competence are not opposites—and what it means to lead like a human

🧠 Key Ideas to Take With You:

• You don’t have to be a healthcare executive to be a systems thinker. Taylor Swift shows us that impact requires awareness, strategy, and humanity—no matter your industry.
• Emotional regulation doesn’t mean pretending you’re fine. It means being honest, self-aware, and clear-headed when it matters most.
• Not everyone gets access to your mental energy. Be strategic about what—and who—you let in.
• You can be kind, warm, funny, and approachable and be deeply respected as a leader. These are not mutually exclusive.
• Culture change starts with humanity—but it doesn’t stop there. Strategic tools + a human approach = sustainable impact.

🎧 How to Get the Most Out of This Episode:

Listen with curiosity and see which of these five lessons hits home the hardest. If you’re a Swiftie, let the songs anchor the ideas for you. If not, don’t worry—this episode still packs a systems-level punch.

🛠️ Practical Actions You Can Take:

• Ask yourself: Where am I holding too tightly to a plan that needs to flex?
• Notice the systems patterns around you: What vicious cycles are you part of (or perpetuating)?
• Start piloting. Don’t wait for perfect—start with thoughtful, strategic action.
• Audit your energy: Who gets it, and who doesn’t need to?
• Write out what it looks like to “lead like a human” in your world—then build a strategy to make it real.

📲 Call to Action:

• 🎧 Share this episode with a fellow Swiftie who’s also a nurse leader (they’ll love it)
• 📩 Take the quiz to get personalized support for your leadership journey
• 💬 DM me on Instagram with your favorite T-Swift lyric that hits a leadership note—I want to hear them!
• 🎵 Stream the new Life of a Showgirl album and let’s dissect it together

👉 Songs + Albums Mentioned:

• Taylor Swift albums referenced: Folklore, Lover, Tortured Poets Department, Evermore, Midnights, Red, Life of a Showgirl
• Songs mentioned: “Mad Woman,” “The Archer,” “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me,” “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart,” “Mirrorball,” “All Too Well,” “Marjorie,” “Mastermind,” “The Life of a Showgirl,”

🎧 Episode Overview:

If you’re a high-achieving, impact-driven nurse who’s juggling ten different projects and wondering why you still feel stuck or overwhelmed, this episode is for you.

Today I’m talking about how ambition (yes, even the well-meaning kind) can quietly sabotage our impact. I’m walking you through the concept of leverage points from systems thinking and how applying this lens to your career, leadership, and daily work can help you stop spinning your wheels and start creating real change.

If you’re tired of doing all the things and ready to do the right things, let’s go.

🔑 In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• What systems thinking can teach you about working with less effort, more impact
• Why over-functioning is often a sign of misaligned ambition—not a lack of skill or discipline
• How to spot high-leverage activities in your day-to-day work (and what to cut)
• Why narrowing your focus actually builds your influence, visibility, and opportunities
• What happens when ambition becomes a bottleneck—for you and your team

🧠 Key Ideas to Take With You:

• You don’t need to do everything—you need to do the right things.
• Leverage isn’t lazy. It’s strategy.
• When people don’t know what you’re about, they can’t connect you to the right opportunities.
• Most change doesn’t require more energy—it requires better direction.

🎧 How to Get the Most Out of This Episode:

Listen with a recent “overwhelm moment” in mind. Maybe it’s a career decision, a leadership role, or a plate that’s feeling way too full. As I talk through over-functioning, leverage points, and strategic ambition, notice what hits close to home—and what might need to shift.

🛠️ Practical Actions You Can Take:

• Reflect: Where are you putting in more energy than the outcome is worth?
• Identify one high-leverage activity that could replace 2–3 low-return ones.
• Ask yourself: What do I want to be known for professionally? Is it clear to others?
• Take the Map Your Impact mini-course to clarify your position and determine your best next move

📣 Special Announcements:

💡 Map Your Impact is a 90-minute CEU-accredited course helps you assess your social power, your workplace expertise, and your best leverage points for creating meaningful change, without burning out.

🎁 Use code MYI10OFF to save $10 at checkout.

📩 Got questions or feedback? I’d love to hear from you. If something’s holding you back from joining MYI—or you want help thinking through your strategy—DM me anytime.

📲 Call to Action:

• Enroll in Map Your Impact (just $27 with the code)
• DM me @nursing.the.system to share where you’re over-functioning or stuck
• Share this episode with a nurse leader who’s overwhelmed and needs strategy

🎧 Episode Overview:

There’s a myth in healthcare that speaking up will get you shut down. And while it’s true that how your voice is received depends on power, politics, and identity...what I’ve seen again and again is this: You don’t get burned for speaking up. You get burned for speaking up without understanding your environment.

In this episode, I’m walking you through how to assess your position in your organization, what most workplaces actually value, and how to speak up in a way that aligns with your current level of social power and expertise. If you want to make change without constantly getting pushback, this one’s for you.

🔑 In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• Why your voice isn’t always received the same way—and how to shift your strategy without silencing yourself
• The difference between what you say and how and when you say it
• How to assess your social power and expertise in any workplace
• Why the smartest changemakers know when to wait and when to push
• A practical framework for deciding how to speak up based on your current position

🧠 Key Ideas to Take With You:

• Speaking up isn’t about confidence—it’s about strategy.
• You don’t have to be the loudest voice in the room to make an impact.
• Your social power and expertise determine how your ideas are received—learn to work with that, not against it.
• Systems don’t always reject ideas—they reject ideas delivered at the wrong time, in the wrong way.

🎧 How to Get the Most Out of This Episode:

Think of a time when you tried to speak up and it didn’t land the way you wanted. As you listen, reflect on how much social power and expertise you had in that moment—and whether your approach aligned with your position. This episode can help you self-correct without self-blame.

🛠️ Practical Actions You Can Take:

• Use the “social power + expertise” matrix to assess your current position at work
• Reflect: Are you approaching change from a one-size-fits-all strategy, or tailoring your approach based on your context?
• Take the Map Your Impact mini-course to identify your position and build a strategic plan
• Try the end-of-episode journaling prompt: Think of a time you spoke up and it didn’t land. What was off?

📣 Special Announcements:

✨ The doors to Change Maker Essentials are now closed for this cohort—but Map Your Impact is always open.

If you’re looking for a bite-sized but powerful resource that helps you lead smarter and advocate more effectively, Map Your Impact is the next best step.

Use code MYI10OFF at checkout to save $10.

📲 Call to Action:

• DM me on Instagram @nursing.the.system if you want help figuring out your social power + expertise score
• Share this episode with a colleague who’s feeling discouraged or unsure how to speak up
• Reflect on what your current position allows—and how to build toward the position you want

🎧 Episode Overview:

If you’ve ever found yourself paralyzed by indecision, whether it’s about applying for a new job, enrolling in a course, or saying yes to a leadership opportunity—this episode is for you.

I created the Aligned Action Audit after several powerful conversations with nurses on the CME waitlist. Many of them weren’t struggling with motivation, they were struggling with decision clarity. This tool will help you assess professional opportunities (big or small) in a way that’s grounded, strategic, and personal.

By the end of this episode, you'll have a framework you can return to again and again to make aligned career decisions with more confidence and less mental spiraling.

🔑 In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• How to use the Aligned Action Audit to evaluate any professional opportunity
• Why “vision fit” is more important than status or resume padding
• How to distinguish between a helpful stretch and an unsustainable strain
• What your hesitation might actually be trying to tell you
• Five final “gut check” questions I’d ask if I were coaching you directly

🧠 Key Ideas to Take With You:

• Not every growth opportunity is aligned growth.
• Capacity isn’t just about time—it’s about energy, logistics, and support.
• ROI isn’t always financial—sometimes momentum, clarity, or confidence is the most valuable return.
• Hesitation isn’t a red flag. It’s a yellow flag asking you to slow down and get curious.

🎧 How to Get the Most Out of This Episode:

Grab a journal or notebook and walk through the audit with a real decision you’re facing. Whether it’s CME or something else entirely, the clarity you’ll gain can help you take action with more intention and less overthinking.

🛠️ Practical Actions You Can Take:

• Use the 4-part Aligned Action Audit to assess your next big decision
• Reflect on which of the three hesitation types you tend to fall into
• Ask yourself: Is this a detour disguised as growth?
• Schedule a 15-minute lightning call with me if you're considering CME and need help deciding

📣 Special Announcements:

✨ The doors to Change Maker Essentials are officially OPEN!

Early action pricing ends Tuesday at midnight—save $300 by enrolling early.

💸 We also created a full funding guide PDF for you to send to your employer or HR rep. Many hospitals have PD budgets or tuition coverage, and this guide helps you make the case.

📲 Call to Action:

• the audio for this podcast was pulled from this video.
• Take the quiz to find your best-fit NTS resource if you’re unsure where to begin

🎧 Episode Overview:

This episode is a little heavier because I’m talking about something both personal and systemic: how we talk (and think) about big, broken problems like gun violence.

I’m walking you through three common myths that hold change makers back—not just around policy, but in our teams, organizations, and careers. These myths come from the broader Nine Change Myths framework I teach in Change Maker Essentials, and today we’re applying them to a real-world challenge so you can see how these patterns show up and how to think differently.

🔑 In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• Three common myths that get in the way of real change—and how to spot them
• How well-meaning people can unintentionally stall progress by falling into faulty logic
• Why motivation isn’t enough to make systems change
• What it actually takes to lead change (hint: it’s not just passion)
• How to start shifting thinking in your workplace or community

🧠 Key Ideas to Take With You:

• Believing there’s a single “right answer” often keeps us stuck
• Perfect rollouts don’t exist—iteration is where change really happens
• Motivation without know-how leads to burnout and stagnation
• Systems problems require systems thinking, not silver bullets

🎧 How to Get the Most Out of This Episode:

This episode blends real-world systems analysis with mindset reframing. Listen with your critical thinking cap on and consider where these myths might be showing up in your own work. If you feel stuck in your organization, this might give you language for why.

🛠️ Practical Actions You Can Take:

• Reflect on which of the three myths you hear most often in your team or org
• Use the scripts I share in the episode to interrupt faulty thinking with curiosity
• Identify one problem you’ve been over-complicating (or oversimplifying) and map out how you might prototype instead
• If you’re ready for deeper tools and strategy, join the CME waitlist and book a clarity call with me

📣 Special Announcements:

✨ The September cohort of Change Maker Essentials opens next week! Join the waitlist, to save $300 and access a free 15-minute 1:1 call with me.

📄 We also created a funding/business case PDF to help you request tuition or work-time approval from your employer. Use it—it’s effective, research-backed, and designed to advocate for you.

🚨 Not sure if CME is right for you? Take the quiz to find out!

🎧 Episode Overview:

This week’s episode is a peek behind the scenes. I’m walking you through how I’m rethinking the way we run and grow Nursing the System, especially how we launch Change Maker Essentials. It’s part systems lesson, part business reflection, and fully rooted in the idea that iteration is key to sustainability.

If you’ve ever wanted to launch something of your own, or if you’re just curious how I think about testing, prototyping, and scaling this work, come on in.

🔑 In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• How the concept of prototyping is shaping my business (and how it might help you too)
• What’s changing about how we enroll students in Change Maker Essentials this fall
• Ways nurses can access professional development funding (and how to ask for it)
• Why I built a quiz to help you find the right Nursing the System resource
• What I’m doing to make this a high-trust, high-integrity space in a low-trust online landscape

🧠 Key Ideas to Take With You:

• You don’t need to do it perfectly—you just need to get it into the world and iterate.
• If your work isn’t evolving, it’s not growing.
• It’s your right to access professional development funding—don’t leave money on the table.
• Systems thinking isn’t just for healthcare. It’s a lens that helps you approach business, career, and life with intention.

🛠️ Practical Actions You Can Take:

• Take the new Nursing the System Quiz to find your best-fit resource
• Join the Change Maker Essentials Waitlist to book a free 15-minute clarity call with me

📣 Special Announcements:

📄 Need help getting CME funded? Use the business case PDF to advocate for tuition or work-time coverage.

📲 Call to Action:

• Subscribe to the pod if you haven’t already
• DM me @nursing.the.system if you want help requesting CME funding—I’m happy to support!

🎧 Episode Overview:

This episode was inspired by a DM I got from a nurse named Jessica, who asked about a topic I don’t hear discussed nearly enough: followership. We talk a lot about leadership in nursing—and for good reason—but we rarely explore what it means to be a great follower.

In this episode, I’m diving into how following is actually a critical leadership skill, what it looks like to move between leading and following in real-world changemaking, and how honoring the work that came before us makes us more effective (and less overwhelmed) systems thinkers.

🔑 In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• Why we need to reframe followership as an active and essential component of leadership
• How I think about leadership and followership as a dance, not a hierarchy
• What Picasso, cave paintings, and John Green taught me about systems change
• How to assess whether it’s your moment to lead—or your moment to follow
• The six key habits that make someone an effective follower in a change ecosystem

🧠 Key Ideas to Take With You:

• Systems change is the work of generations. You don’t have to invent it—you just have to move it forward.
• Leadership and followership are not opposites. They’re both skills every changemaker needs.
• You don’t have to be in charge to lead change—you just have to know when and how to step up.
• Being an effective follower is about curiosity, discernment, humility, and action.

🎧 How to Get the Most Out of This Episode:

Listen with an open mind about your own role in change. Whether you identify more as a “leader” or “supporter,” this episode will challenge you to think differently about what it means to contribute meaningfully to a team—and a system.

🛠️ Practical Actions You Can Take:

• Ask yourself: “Where in my work am I trying to invent when I could connect to what’s already been done?”
• Identify one place this week where you can follow strategically—whether by stepping back, supporting someone else’s idea, or conserving your energy.
• Reflect on who in your workplace has expertise you can amplify, not overshadow.
• Use the six followership habits I outline (escalation, amplification, collaboration, humility, resilience, and systems thinking) to evaluate where you might grow.
• Get curious about your current change ecosystem and the role you naturally play within it.

📣 Special Announcements:

✨ Changemaker Essentials opens soon for the September cohort! If you’re interested in systems thinking, strategic leadership, and practical tools for real-world change—join the waitlist.

🎓 Want a great starting point? Take the Map Your Impact mini-course. Use code MYI10OFF for $10 off.

👉 Resources Mentioned:

• Map Your Impact mini-course
• Change Maker Essentials
• The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green
• The Lascaux Cave Paintings (L-A-S-C-A-U-X—look them up!)

🎧 Episode Overview:

This episode is a little different. I didn’t plan it. I didn’t prep it. I sat down on my lunch break in the middle of a very real, very messy Tuesday and hit record. Because I was overwhelmed and I remembered that I built a tool inside Changemaker Essentials specifically for moments like this.

So I decided to walk myself through the framework I teach for navigating overwhelm and regaining clarity when your brain feels like it’s short-circuiting. I talk through the mental chatter, the reality of my workload, and what it looks like to pause, reassess, and make a plan that actually feels doable.

If you’re juggling a lot and feel like you might snap, this one’s for you.

🔑 In This Episode, I Talk Through:

• What overwhelm really is (and why it’s not just about time)
• The three levers we can pull to manage it: raise resources, reduce demands, or reassess reality
• Why I treat my own brain like a system to be supported
• The real difference between perception and reality when we’re maxed out
• How I used a 4-step tool from Changemaker Essentials to go from spiraling to grounded in 30 minutes

🧠 A Few Mindset Shifts You’ll Hear:

• Overwhelm isn’t always a problem to fix—sometimes it’s a cue to pause and assess
• Resilience means working with your limits, not pretending you don’t have any
• The project plan didn’t fail—you just didn’t know what life was going to throw at you
• There’s no shame in revising timelines when your circumstances change
• Sometimes the bravest thing you can do is admit: “I need to stop and re-plan”

🛠️ Practical Steps You Can Try This Week:

• Do a commitment audit: What can you pause, delegate, or deprioritize right now?
• Try a brain dump and organize your tasks by priority and dependency
• Time block the rest of your week based on what’s truly essential
• Communicate your capacity clearly to others—whether that’s your team or your friends
• Protect your restorative routines (like workouts or quiet time), especially during crunch seasons

📣 Curious About the Tool I Used?

The 4-step overwhelm activity I walked through is straight from the Change Maker Essentials curriculum. It’s a framework I return to over and over again—and if you found it helpful, you’ll love the rest of the program.

✨ Join the waitlist here: Change Maker Essentials Waitlist

Enrollment opens in September—and you’ll be the first to know when it does.

📲 Let’s Stay Connected:

• Feeling overwhelmed right now? DM me and let me know what your first next step is
• Love this kind of behind-the-scenes honesty? Let me know in a podcast review, your words help the show reach more nurse change-makers like you

🎧 Episode Overview:

This week’s episode is inspired by a DM I received from a nursing faculty member who said, “I want to set the nursing world on fire—but I don’t know where to start.” If that resonates with you, you’re not alone.

Whether you’re a student, an educator, or a practicing nurse, if you know you want to make change but don’t yet know what your contribution will look like—this episode is for you. I’m walking you through why you don’t need a perfectly defined mission to get started, and I’m offering real, strategic steps you can take today to begin building your changemaker skillset.

Oh—and if you hear some rustling or meowing in the background, that’s Poppy the cat. She’s joining us for this episode too.

🔑 In This Episode, I Share:

• Why clarity comes after action—not before it
• How to use your current job as your changemaker training ground
• The personal story behind my own uncertain beginnings in nursing and systems work
• Why building skills (not chasing credentials) is the fastest path to clarity
• How to choose a first change project that’s motivating and manageable
• A behind-the-scenes look at how I approach leadership, personal mastery, and team development

🧠 My Hope for You After This Episode:

• You feel permission to start before you’re ready
• You see your current role—whatever it is—as fertile ground for change
• You understand the power of starting small and learning as you go
• You’re reminded that your energy, interests, and growth matter just as much as the outcomes you’re driving

🛠️ Try This:

• Make a list of “things that tug at your heart” at work—then look for patterns
• Set up one conversation this week with a colleague to learn more about their challenges
• Reflect on what kind of changemaker you want to be—not just what you want to fix
• Identify one tiny process, frustration, or pattern you can explore more deeply
• Don’t default into another degree or certification out of uncertainty—build real skills instead

🧭 Want Help Figuring Out Where to Start?

✨ Map Your Impact is my actionable mini-course designed to help you identify where you sit in your organization's change ecosystem—and exactly what behaviors to focus on to build momentum.

🎧 As a podcast listener, use code MYI10OFF to get $10 off:

👉 Enroll in Map Your Impact

📣 Want to Go Deeper?

If you're ready for 12 weeks of strategic skill building, professional growth, and systems-level thinking, check out Changemaker Essentials. It’s my foundational program for nurses who want to lead change with clarity and confidence. Applications open again soon!

📲 Let’s Stay in Conversation:

• DM me on Instagram @nursingthe.system and tell me:
• 👉 What’s one small step you’re taking this week to get in the sandbox?
• Enjoying the podcast? Leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen. It helps more nurses find this work and start their own changemaker journey.
• Have an idea or question for a future episode? Send me a message—I love hearing from you.

🎧 Episode Overview:

We’re back—and not exactly how I imagined. My summer sabbatical didn’t go the way I planned. I got sick, lost energy, and had to put a lot of things on pause. But the time away gave me unexpected clarity. In this episode, I’m reflecting on a post I shared at the start of the yearand I’m revisiting what’s held true, what’s shifted, and how I’m applying (or re-learning) those lessons now.

This is a vulnerable one. If you’ve been navigating your own version of plans-gone-sideways, I hope it offers something grounding and real.

🔑 In This Episode, You’ll Hear Me Reflect On:

• How I’m still learning to hold my vision tightly but my plans loosely
• The way illness forced me to rethink productivity and capacity
• Why I believe in piloting—even when things don’t go the way I hoped
• What actually happened with Nurse Leader HQ (and why we pushed the launch)
• How I think about investing in support—and why sometimes not hiring help is the right move

🧠 A Few Things I’m Taking With Me:

• A clear vision doesn’t need a rigid plan.
• Just because an opportunity is exciting doesn’t mean it’s sustainable.
• Your gut is a valid data source—especially when it comes to collaborators.
• Piloting is not a failure. It’s a wise way forward.
• Growth doesn’t always require new investments—it sometimes looks like honoring past ones.

🎧 How to Get the Most Out of This Episode:

Treat this episode like a check-in—with me, and maybe with yourself too. What intentions did you set at the beginning of the year? What’s changed? What do you want the rest of 2025 to feel like?

🛠️ Try This:

• Revisit your goals: Are you being flexible with the how?
• Scan your calendar: Are your “yeses” energizing you—or draining you?
• If you’re stuck waiting for perfect conditions, could you try piloting instead?
• Ask yourself: Am I listening to my gut—or trying to be liked?
• Have you already invested in support? Are you actually using it?

📣 A Quick Update:

Nurse Leader HQ is still coming—just not on the original timeline. We’re pushing the launch to December so we can build something even stronger. If you want to be the first to know when applications reopen, the link will be in the show notes soon.

📲 Let’s Stay Connected:

• Loved this reflection? Send it to a friend who needs to hear it.
• Leave a quick review to help other nurse leaders find the show.
• Want to read the original Instagram post I reflect on in this episode? Click here.
• DM me your thoughts—I’m back online and I’ve missed chatting with you!

🎙 We’re Taking a Summer Sabbatical (But Here’s What’s Coming)

🎧 Episode Overview:

This is a quick update to let you know what’s happening behind the scenes at Nursing the System and what’s coming your way this fall. After 6 months of showing up every week with new episodes, Taylor and I are taking a short sabbatical to rest, realign, and focus on some exciting projects we’re building for you. In this episode, I’m sharing why we’re pressing pause, what we’ll be working on this summer, and how you can stay connected while we’re on break.

📣 Special Announcements:

☀️ We’ll be back July 21st with fresh new episodes

📌 The How to Be a Systems Thinker workshop returns in August

🧠 Changemaker Essentials Fall Cohort kicks off in September

📣 Nurse Leader HQ second cohort begins in December

(If you’re interested in NLHQ and haven’t taken CME, now’s your time!)

📲 Call to Action:

• 🎧 Catch up on past episodes from the archive
• 📥 Join the System Sunday email list for weekly summer lessons
• 🔐 Sign up for The Changemaker Case Files private podcast
• 🎓 Take Map Your Impact to discover your next best move
• 💬 Follow me on Instagram @nursing.the.system for summer updates

🎙 The Cycle of Disempowerment: Why Nurses Stop Speaking Up (and How to Start Again)

🎧 Episode Overview:

In this episode, I’m walking you through a pattern I’ve seen over and over again—not just in healthcare, but across all kinds of systems: the cycle of disempowerment. It’s what happens when we bring up ideas or try to push for change, and we keep hearing “no” until we eventually stop speaking up. I’ll break down why this cycle happens, how to recognize it, and what you can do to break out of it—both for yourself and the people around you.

🔑 In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• What the cycle of disempowerment looks like in action (and why it's so common in healthcare)
• The 5-stage framework that explains why we stop bringing ideas forward
• How our own protective responses unintentionally reinforce stagnant systems
• What to say to coworkers and leaders when you notice this pattern
• A practical, compassionate strategy to reclaim your voice—without burning out

🧠 Key Ideas to Take With You:

• Repeatedly being told “no” changes our behavior—even when we care deeply.
• Emotional withdrawal is protective, but it also keeps our systems stuck.
• Sometimes the cycle isn’t a leadership issue—it’s a culture issue.
• Speaking up again requires both courage and strategy—and it's okay to start small.

🎧 How to Get the Most Out of This Episode:

If you’ve been feeling disengaged at work—or watching your team shut down—this episode might name something you’ve struggled to articulate. Listen with curiosity and self-compassion. You’re not broken. But there is a way forward.

🛠️ Practical Actions You Can Take:

• Ask yourself: “Where have I stopped trying—and why?”
• Share this episode with a colleague and start a real conversation about what’s keeping you stuck
• Use the scripts I share to name the pattern (with your team or your boss)
• Reframe “no” as data—not a reflection of your value
• Decide: is it time to shift your strategy… or shift your environment?

📲 Call to Action:

• Share this episode with a coworker and talk about where you’ve both felt shut down
• DM me on Instagram @nursing.the.system if you want help navigating this
• Subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss future mindset + leadership tools
• Leave a review if this helped you—it really does help the show reach more nurse leaders

🎧 Episode Overview:

If you've ever felt like you were handed the keys to a leadership role and left to figure it out on your own—this one's for you. In today’s episode, I’m pulling back the curtain on the making of Nurse Leader HQ, a brand new 6-month mentorship and mastermind for nurse leaders who are done winging it and ready to lead with clarity, strategy, and support. You’ll hear why I built this, what makes it different, and what you can expect inside this high-touch container.

🔑 In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• The real gap in leadership support that Nurse Leader HQ is designed to fill
• Why private coaching alone isn’t enough to meet the growing needs of nurse leaders
• The 3-part structure of the program: private coaching, mastermind community, and leadership lab
• What’s included inside the program—and who it’s built for
• A behind-the-scenes coaching conversation with a graduating client (that might just make you cry)

🧠 Key Ideas to Take With You:

• Being a great nurse doesn’t automatically prepare you to lead in complex systems.
• You’re not behind—you just haven’t had the right support yet.
• Leadership growth takes time, but you shouldn’t have to figure it out alone.
• The best leaders build their systems before they burn out.

🎧 How to Get the Most Out of This Episode:

Whether you're already in a formal role or you’re preparing to step into one, listen with an open mind to what kind of support you actually need—not just what you’ve been offered. Ask yourself: what would be different in your workday if you had a space to process, strategize, and grow?

🛠️ Practical Actions You Can Take:

• Join the Waitlist for Nurse Leader HQ: Applications open June 2 at 8am PT—waitlist members get first access
• Assess Your Leadership Support: Are you being mentored, or are you just managing?
• Block Time for Strategic Work: Start practicing what we teach inside NLHQ now—set aside calendar space for long-term thinking
• Reflect: What would your future self thank you for learning now?

📣 Special Announcements:

🚨 Nurse Leader HQ Applications Open June 2

This is a small, high-touch cohort (only 5–7 spots). If you're even considering applying, get on the waitlist now so you can review all the details and be ready when the link goes live.

📲 Call to Action:

• ✅ Join the Nurse Leader HQ Waitlist
• 📩 DM me on Instagram @nursing.the.system with any questions

🎙 Episode Overview: How I Structure My Week as a Corporate Nurse Leader + Entrepreneur

If you are curious how I juggle a corporate leadership role and run Nursing the System, this episode is for you!

In this episode, I’m pulling back the curtain and walking you through exactly how I structure my week—day by day, hour by hour. This is the behind-the-scenes of how I balance strategic leadership, client coaching, content creation, and actual human needs like sleep, fitness, and friendship.

Whether you’re in a high-capacity season yourself or just craving more intention in how you manage your energy and calendar, this episode is a deep dive into systems-thinking for your life.

🔑 In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• My full weekly routine—from Monday meetings to weekend voice notes and podcasting
• How I break down work by energy level and environment (and why that matters)
• Why I’m intentionally not aiming for balance in 2025—and what I’m optimizing for instead
• The 3 types of work nurse leaders must design for: Recurring, Reactive, and Strategic
• How I protect space for long-term planning while still staying responsive

🧠 Key Ideas to Take With You:

• Systems thinking isn’t just for patient care—it works for time management, too.
• If your calendar doesn’t reflect your goals, your weeks won’t produce the life you want.
• Nurse leaders often spend too much time in reactive mode. Carve out time for strategic work on purpose.
• Your week doesn’t have to be “balanced”—it has to be aligned with your season, values, and vision.
• Calendaring is leadership. And you can design your calendar to work with your energy instead of against it.

🛠️ Try This: Map Your Week Like a System

Start with these reflection questions:

• What’s recurring in your work and life? What days/times are best for those tasks?
• What’s strategic and needs deep thinking time? Where can you protect space for that?
• What’s reactive, and how can you buffer time to handle it without derailing everything else?

Then ask:

• When is my energy highest for focused work?
• Where do I need community, rest, or creative time to feel like a human?

Design around your own data—not someone else’s ideal week.

📦 Resources + Mentions:

📝 Nurse Leader Headquarters – Join the Waitlist

• A high-touch, small-cohort leadership program for nurse managers who are ready to lead with clarity, strategy, and confidence. Applications open June 2.

📥 System Sunday Email List

• Weekly voice notes turned into grounded, honest emails—designed to help you reset and reorient each week as a nurse changemaker.

📲 Stay in the Loop

• Follow Claire on IG: @nursing.the.system

Episode Overview:

Today’s episode is personal and powerful. After a string of frustrating public encounters in my (usually peaceful!) Dutch city, I started thinking about bullies—and how very present they are in nursing and healthcare.

If you’ve ever been bullied, witnessed it, or had to manage someone who bullies others, this episode is for you.

We’re talking about:

• Why bullies act the way they do
• What bullying looks like in a professional setting
• How to hold the line (without losing yourself)
• Why rooting it out early matters—for the health of your team, culture, and leadership

🔑 In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• Why bullying is a reflection of their wounds, not your worth
• What workplace bullying looks like (hint: it’s not just “being mean”)
• How a zero-tolerance approach protects your team from dysfunction and disrepair
• What to say in the moment to shut it down with composure
• How to lead through bullying—whether you’re the manager or a team member

🧠 Key Ideas to Take With You:

• Bullies thrive in silence. Speaking up is a service to your team.
• You don’t need to “fix” a bully—but you do need to hold your dignity and the line.
• You can feel empathy without excusing behavior.
• Boundaries are leadership tools, not just personal preferences.
• Culture is shaped by what we tolerate. If we don't stop bullying, it spreads.

🛠️ Reflection Prompts:

• Where are you tolerating disrespect because it feels easier than confronting it?
• What’s one small boundary you can reinforce this week to flex that leadership muscle?
• How can you be part of a culture where bullies lose their power?

💬 Sample Phrases to Use with Bullies:

• “It seems like you’re having a rough day. I’m going to need you to handle that elsewhere.”
• “I’m surprised you felt comfortable saying that out loud.”
• “I understand you’re frustrated, but I will not allow you to speak to me like that.”

(These are calm. Direct. Non-negotiable.)

📣 Nurse Leaders—Heads Up:

My new program Nurse Leader Headquarters is opening for applications in June! This is a high-impact program designed to give nurse leaders the strategic tools, support, and confidence you should have gotten when you first stepped into your role.

🎯 Get on the waitlist now to:

• Be the first to hear details
• Secure first dibs on limited seats
• Get insider-only updates and early access

👉 JOIN NOW

📲 Stay Connected:

• Follow me on IG: @nursing.the.system
• Join the System Sunday email crew: For real talk, mindset shifts, and system-savvy strategy delivered weekly.

Welcome back! This week we’re diving into something that high achievers (like me and probably you) struggle with: saying no. If you’ve ever found yourself overcommitted, running on empty, or constantly feeling like the "go-to person," this episode is for you.

We’re unpacking why we struggle to say no, how to filter what you say yes to, and why setting boundaries isn’t selfish—it’s strategic leadership. If you’ve been stuck in overcommitment mode, let’s shift into something more sustainable.

🔑 In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• The cultural stories that make us feel like we have to say yes—and why they’re holding you back.
• A 3-part filter to help you decide what’s worth your time, energy, and attention.
• Why being overcommitted actually dilutes your impact (and how to stop it).
• How to use the Value Add Spectrum to figure out what’s no longer serving you.
• Real-life examples of how I’ve set (and held) boundaries—yes, even with the COO.
• How boundaries help you shift from a reactive leader to a proactive one who leads with intention.

🧠 Key Ideas to Take With You:

• Saying no is not selfish—it’s a leadership skill that protects your capacity to lead well.
• If everything’s important, nothing is. You have to filter and prioritize to show up fully.
• Boundaries don’t just happen—you build the muscle by practicing (yes, even when it’s uncomfortable).
• You are your best systems change asset—don’t dilute your power with misaligned yeses.

🛠️ The 3-Part Filter to Evaluate Commitments:

1. Mission Fit: Does this align with where you’re headed?
2. Capacity Check: Can you do this well without draining yourself or hurting your bigger goals?
3. Fun Factor: Will this bring meaning, satisfaction, or joy to your life? (Not everything has to be a grind.)

💡 Try This: The Value Add Spectrum

• Rate your current commitments from -10 to +10 based on how much value you actually bring.
• Anything below a +5? Reevaluate.
• Anything at 0 or negative? Let it go.

🎧 How to Get the Most Out of This Episode:

Use this episode as a gut check. What are you holding onto out of guilt, fear, or habit? Grab a notebook, list your current commitments, and run them through the filter. You’ll walk away with more clarity—and maybe fewer things on your plate.

📣 Ready for More Support?

• Professional Mission Clarity: Download my free Professional Mission Statement Blueprint to get laser-focused on where you’re headed.
• New Program Alert: A leadership program for nurse leaders is coming soon. If you want to build boundaries, lead strategically, and stop drowning in everyone else’s priorities—join the interest list now to get first access.

📲 Stay Connected:

• Follow on Instagram: @nursing.the.system
• Subscribe to System Sunday: Sign Up Here
• DM Me: What’s something you’re saying no to this week? Let me know how this landed for you.

Welcome back to the pod! Today’s episode is for nurse leaders who’ve ever felt like they’ve lost themselves in the demands of leadership. Whether you're burning out trying to fill every gap for your team, or you’ve drifted too far from the bedside and feel disconnected from why you started—this is for you.

I’m walking you through why this happens and how to get back to yourself, without stepping away from your role. You’ll learn how to realign your personal priorities with your organization’s mission, so you can lead with clarity, purpose, and energy again.

We’ll get practical with two reflection questions you can use today, plus I’m sharing a sneak peek into something special I’ve got brewing for nurse leaders like you.

🔑 In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• Why so many nurse leaders feel like they’ve lost themselves in the role—and how to tell if you’re one of them
• The difference between being dedicated and being depleted, and how to stop sacrificing your own needs for the team
• How to reconnect with why you became a leader in the first place, even in a high-pressure environment
• Two powerful questions to help you realign your personal goals with your leadership responsibilities
• What it means to be a systems thinking leader—and how to show up for your team and yourself at the same time

🧠 Key Ideas to Take With You:

• Leadership without self-connection leads to burnout. You matter in the equation too.
• You can care deeply about your team and still have personal goals that fuel your work.
• Aligning your organization’s mission with your own priorities will center you and help you lead sustainably.
• Leadership isn’t about losing yourself—it’s about bringing your whole self to the role, strategically and intentionally.

🛠️ Two Reflection Questions to Reset Your Leadership:

1. What is the primary organizational priority that your team needs to focus on right now?
2. How does this organizational priority connect to a personal priority you have as a professional?

Start here. Get honest. Then build your leadership plan around BOTH.

🎧 How to Get the Most Out of This Episode:

This isn’t just something to listen to passively. Grab a notebook or open your notes app and answer those two questions. Come back to them weekly if you need to. When your goals and your organization’s goals are running parallel, you don’t lose yourself—you grow.

📣 Something Big Is Coming…

If this episode resonated with you, and you’ve been craving more support as a nurse leader, I’ve got something exciting on the horizon. A new program just for nurse leaders is in the works. If you want to be the first to hear about it (and get your first clue), join the super secret nurse leader waitlist.

📲 Stay Connected:

• Follow on Instagram: @nursing.the.system
• Subscribe to System Sunday: Sign Up Here