One Year of the GRL Initiative: Turning Frustration Into Forward Motion
One year ago, the GRL Initiative didn’t begin with a business plan, a content calendar, or a perfectly branded website.
It began with frustration.
I walked out of a meeting absolutely pissed off. Not inspired. Not motivated. Just done. Done with conversations that talked around women instead of with us. Done with leadership spaces that asked us to shrink, soften, or wait our turn. Done with the quiet expectation that we should be grateful just to be in the room.
So I did the only thing that felt honest.
I started.
No roadmap. No clarity. Just motion.
The Messy Middle No One Sees
If I’m being real (and that’s the whole point here), there were many moments this year where I said out loud:
“I don’t even know why I’m doing this.”
And still—I kept going.
Not by doing everything. But by picking one piece and giving it more attention.
One post.
One idea.
One website tweak.
One uncomfortable DM.
One more edit.
Then suddenly—suddenly—the pieces started talking to each other.
Branding showed up.
Marketing made sense.
The voice got clearer.
The message got sharper.
What once felt like chaos started to feel like a system.
Not a perfect one—but a real one.
What One Year Can Hold
In just twelve months, the GRL Initiative has taken me places I couldn’t have imagined when I rage-started this thing:
Presenting in multiple cities
Speaking at two national conferences
Learning the ins and outs of social media, branding, websites, and analytics (the unsexy backbone of any movement)
Learned the ins and outs of podcasting and publishing
Writing a book—and signing a publishing contract
All because I turned some very real bullshit into action.
Not overnight.
Not gracefully.
But relentlessly.
Finding My People
Somewhere along the way, I found my allies.
The ones who opened doors.
The ones who said, “You need to be in this room.”
The ones who shared my work, sent the text, made the intro, or simply said, “Keep going.”
Community didn’t show up because I had it all figured out.
It showed up because I kept showing up.
Even when it didn’t make sense.
Especially when it didn’t make sense.
What I Learned in Year One
Not everyone is an ally.
And sometimes—that’s not because they don’t care, but because they don’t know how to be one.
I learned quickly that support doesn’t always look like applause or public alignment. Sometimes it’s quiet. Sometimes it’s absent. Sometimes it’s conditional. And learning not to take that personally has been one of the hardest and most freeing lessons of this year.
What does help this work move?
People telling other people about it.
Seriously. That’s it.
Not algorithms. Not virality. Not perfect branding.
It’s someone saying:
“Hey, there’s this helpful resource I found when I didn’t know what to do.”
Or:
“Here’s this woman talking about real things—team dynamics, leadership tension, burnout, identity—without pretending it’s easy.”
That kind of sharing matters more than you know. It’s how this work travels into rooms I’ll never be in. It’s how it reaches someone exactly when they need it.
If you want to help this work grow, that’s the way.
Am I Making a Difference?
Here’s the honest answer:
Most days, I don’t know.
There’s no dashboard that measures impact the way your heart wants it measured. No clean metric for confidence regained, boundaries held, or quiet courage built on a random Tuesday.
But I do know this:
If one person—
one parent,
one mom,
one woman on the edge of burnout or breakthrough—
finds something here that helps them feel less alone or more grounded in who they are…
I’ll keep pushing.
This Is Where You Come In
The GRL Initiative was never meant to be a monologue.
So as we head into year two, I want to know:
What have you found useful?
What do you want more of?
Where can I help?
This work is still becoming.
And so am I.
Thank you for being here—from the beginning, from the middle, or from right now.
Here’s to one year of starting anyway.
And to everything that’s still unfolding.
