www.shetalksmag.com
Vol. 3 Issue No. 6
She Talks
She Talks
MAGAZINE
June 2026
Amanda
Taylor
Amanda
Taylor
Feature:
The perfect summer
pasta salad
The perfect summer
pasta salad
Plated to
Perfection
Plated to
Perfection
Saying No
Without Guilt
Saying No
Without Guilt
Learning not to
reject yourself
Learning not to
reject yourself
Photo Credit:
Starla Fortunato
Lipstick by
Keca’s Usna
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FROM THE EDITOR
Founder, Lead and Empower Her She Talks
Dear She Talks Women Around the World,
As we step into May, I’m reminded of how differently this season looks depending on where
you are in the world. For many of us in the United States, May marks a season of transition.
Graduations are being celebrated, school years are coming to an end, and families are
preparing for the long-awaited days of summer. As someone who lives by the beach, I look
forward to this time every year—the slower mornings, the laughter of children enjoying a
break from school, the warmth of the sun, and the opportunity to create memories with the
people I love most.
Yet for many of you reading this, life may look completely different right now. Some of you
have already experienced your summer. Others are deep in the middle of your school year,
managing busy schedules, growing businesses, raising families, leading teams, or pursuing
dreams that don't pause for a season. No matter where you are in the world, May offers us
something universal: a reminder to pause and honor the milestones along our journey.
Too often, as women, we move from one accomplishment to the next without stopping to
acknowledge how far we've come. We check the box, solve the problem, support everyone
around us, and immediately move on to the next responsibility. But growth deserves
celebration. Progress deserves recognition. And your well-being deserves attention. This
month, I encourage you to intentionally make space for rest, renewal, sunshine, joy, and
connection. Not because you've earned it through productivity, but because you are worthy
of it simply by being you.
Take the trip.
Watch the sunset.
Spend time with your family.
Laugh with friends.
Read the book.
Start the dream.
Or simply sit in stillness and allow yourself to breathe.
The world often rewards women for how much they do. At She Talks, we want to remind you
that your value has never been measured by your output. Your voice matters. Your story
matters. Your presence matters.
With gratitude and belief in every one of you,
CONTRIBUTORS
Editor-in-Chief
DR. JULIE DUCHARME
Cover Layout and
Magazine Design
DR. JOSHUA DUCHARME
Contributing Writers
LAURIE SHERIDAN
WENDY WATSON
JOANNE BROOKS
DR. JULIE DUCHARME
LISA E KIRKWOOD
AMANDA TAYLOR
VIRGINIA WILCSEK
SHELBY JO LONG
Table of
@leadandempowerhershetalks
shetalksmag.com
Contents
Cultural Diversity Highlights
and Social Observances in June
Barefoot & Tea in the Sun
Silence
Plated to Perfection
30 Years In: The MBA Still
Moved the Needle
28
11
31
35
16
You’re Not “Too Much” You
Were Just With Someone
Who Needed You Small
Beauty from Pain
Feature:
Amanda Taylor 20
Saying No Without Guilt
37
The Permission You're Waiting
For Is Costing You Wealth
41
The Impatience Trap
46
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30 YEARS IN.
MBA
By Joanne
Brooks
At eighteen, I was told
university wasn’t for me. Not
by a school. Not by an
admissions letter. By my father.
The truth is I’d already been
accepted I’d been offered an
accountancy internship with a
fully funded place at university
to go with it but I wasn’t
allowed to take it. I went and
got a job at the bank instead.
So I built a life around the door
I was told to walk through. I
started businesses, raised a
family, weathered recessions,
watched the internet arrive,
and learnt the kind of things
you only learn by being the one
who has to make payroll on
Friday.
STILL
MOVED
THE
NEEDLE.
THE
SHE TALKS | 7
Why I
almost
didn't do it
Three decades later, at sixty-three,
I sat down to start an MBA.
"Most micro-business
CEOs with twenty or thirty
years on the clock have
already discounted the
MBA. The reasons are
reasonable. They're also
all answerable."
I'll be honest with you, because
that's what this magazine is for. I
had every reason not to enrol. I'd
already done the learning three
decades running a company
teaches more than any classroom
can. I didn't have time owner-
operators can't disappear into
eighteen months of full-time
study. I didn't need a credential —
at this stage, customers, revenue,
and a long operating record are
the only resume that matters. And
the question I really couldn't
shake was the one that veteran
founders always ask: where's the
actual return?
Most MBAs answer that last
question with "your career,
eventually." But that wasn't the
question I was asking. I wanted to
know whether twelve months of
structured work would move my
business not in two years, not in five, but
inside the year I was already living.
Why I almost
didn't do it
The Ducere MBA, delivered through
Kennedy University in the United States,
is built differently and the difference is
the whole point. There are no exams. The
whole degree completes in twelve
months, online, while you keep running
your business. Every single assignment
plugs back into the company you
actually own. You don’t study other
people’s case studies; you write your
own, in real time, on your own P&L.
SHE TALKS | 8
And then there’s the faculty which still genuinely
astonishes me. Ducere’s founder, Mat Jacobson, has
personally interviewed over 250 of the world’s most
extraordinary leaders. Former presidents and prime
ministers. Nobel laureates. Fortune 500 CEOs.
Humanitarians. Founders of brands you’ve known your
whole life. Those interviews — some 2,500 videos in total
are woven through the curriculum, not as a guest-lecture
afterthought but as the core method. You learn the
theory, then you watch the people who lived it tell you
what it actually looked like in the room.
I chose a research project on coaching and networks for
women in business because that was the question my
own work kept asking me. I wanted to know why so many
capable women join networks and stay quiet, why they
wait until crisis to call a coach, and why so much of what's
marketed at us feels like a track that isn't ours.
Fifty-two women answered my survey. Eight sat down
with me for in-depth interviews. The combined reach
across the networks who shared the work was over
86,000 women. And what they told me changed the way I
run my business.
"Networks need
to be more than
stages. They
need to be
circles."
What the women said
Seventy-six percent of the women I surveyed had worked with a
coach but most only when something had gone wrong. They
waited until the wall before they asked for help. The average
impostor-syndrome score was 2.38 out of 5, and almost every
interviewee defined coaching success not in dollars but in clarity
and confidence the real ROI is internal.
And the line that changed everything: women didn't want bigger
stages. They wanted smaller circles. The women who stayed
engaged in their networks weren't the loud ones they were the
ones who had quietly formed smaller groups inside the larger
room, where trust could grow and the conversations were real.
That insight became the model I now run my business on. Circle
Builder, and the Navig8 Circle methodology that came out of it, is
a structured way to build the kind of small, trust-rich groups the
research said women had been looking for all along. And here's
the part I still can't quite believe: in 2024, a global women's
leadership network adopted the model and rolled it out inside
their international community. Today, ten active circles operate
across that network small groups of women supporting one
another, exactly as the research said they
should be. The work travelled. It earned its
place by being wanted.
The numbers behind the story
Since completing the MBA and the strategic
pivot it produced, my income has lifted by
250 percent and my client base has grown
by 500 percent. The pipeline is stronger, the
work is higher value, and the business that
was stalling under fifty thousand a year is
now on a trajectory that genuinely excites
me. I rebranded. I repositioned into the
education sector, consulting to Registered
Training Organisations. I launched a new
one-to-one advisory for professional women
bringing their expertise into online
programs. And I’ve just enrolled in the
Graduate Certificate in Artificial Intelligence,
because the next chapter is already calling.
None of that was on my radar before I
started the MBA. All of it came out of the
work.
Now — here's the part where I ask
something of you
This year, I'm on a mission. I want to find
thirty women who are ready to do the work
alongside me — to enrol in the August intake
of the Kennedy University Online MBA and
come through the program together as a
cohort. Not strangers in a virtual classroom.
A circle.
Because here's what I know now that I didn't
know at the start: doing this on your own is
hard, and doing it with a group of women
who get it is transformational. You'll be
supported by the program, by Kennedy
University, by Ducere — and by me. I've been
through every module, every assignment,
every late-night moment of "why am I doing
this." I'll mentor this cohort personally. And
I'll hold the circle so that no one walks it
alone.
Join the August 30 cohort.
MBA – Global, Executive, AI or Space Management ·
Kennedy University of Leadership, USA · Online
Twelve months. Work-integrated. No exams.
Faculty of 250+ world leaders — presidents,
Nobel laureates, Fortune 500 CEOs.
Designed for women already running real lives
and real businesses.
Mentored personally by Joanne Brooks
throughout the year.
Investment: From USD $9,900 — interest-free,
payable in three instalments.
Next intake: August 2026. Thirty places. First in, first
served.
If something just shifted as you read that
If something in you shifted as you read that that
little flicker that says maybe, that says what if, that
says it's been a long time since I learnt something
new on purpose please don't talk yourself out of it.
That voice that tells you you're past it, too busy, not
the type, too late: that voice is wrong. I know,
because mine said the same things for years.
At eighteen I was told I wasn't university material. At
sixty-three I finished my Master's. The thirty years in
between weren't the obstacle — they were the
qualification. Your years are too.
"Most micro-business CEOs with
twenty or thirty years on the clock
have already discounted the MBA.
The reasons are reasonable. They're
also all answerable."
If you'd like to join the cohort, or if you just want a
conversation about whether it's right for you, write to
me at joanne@navig8biz.com. I'll send you the
program brochure, answer every question you have,
and tell you the truth about what twelve months of
this looks like. No pitch. Just a conversation.
Let's build the next circle. Together.
SHE TALKS | 10
You Were Just With Someone
Who Needed You Small
You’re Not “Too Much”
By Laurie Sheridan
She remembers the moment it started
to shift. Not all at once, but slowly and
subtly. She began choosing her words
more carefully, holding back her
reactions, second-guessing her feelings
before she even expressed them. At
first, it didn't feel like she was losing
herself it felt like she was trying to
make the relationship work. So she
softened her tone. She stopped
bringing things up. She told herself she
was being understanding. Over time,
though, something deeper changed.
She didn't just edit what she said. She
started editing who she was.
No one teaches you how to disappear in a relationship. It happens in small, almost invisible
moments. You might recognize some of them:
Rehearsing what you're going to say before saying it
Downplaying your needs so you don't seem difficult
Questioning whether your feelings are valid
Apologizing without knowing what you did wrong
Waiting for a "better time" to bring something up
Something happens, and it doesn't sit right. You feel it in your body — that quiet discomfort
you can't quite ignore. You want to say something, but instead you wait, telling yourself you'll
bring it up later when the timing is better, when it won't create tension. But that moment
rarely comes. There's always a reason to hold off a little longer, and eventually you stop
bringing it up altogether. Not because it didn't matter, but because keeping the peace starts
to feel easier than telling the truth.
The Quiet Ways Women Learn to Shrink
SHE TALKS | 11
A TRUTH
THAT CAN
BE HARD
TO SEE AT
FIRST
When "Too
Much" Starts
to Feel Like
Truth
After a while, it
doesn't just come
from them. It starts
to come from you.
You begin filtering
yourself without
even thinking:
Maybe I shouldn't
say anything. Maybe
I'm overreacting.
Maybe I need to
calm down.
You shrink your
emotions, your voice,
your presence. And
at some point, you
realize you don't
quite recognize
yourself anymore.
This is one of the
hardest parts of
these kinds of
relationships — not
just what happened
between you, but
what happened
inside of you.
At some point, something shifts.
Not dramatically. Just quietly. You
start to wonder: what if you were
never "too much"? What if your
emotions weren't the problem,
your needs weren't unreasonable,
and you were simply in a dynamic
where your full self couldn't exist
safely? Because more often than
not, that's exactly what's
happening. Your depth, your
awareness, your emotional
intelligence — the parts of you that
make you who you are — needed
someone who could meet you
there. And when they couldn't, it
became easier to make you the
problem than to face that gap.
Meeting
Yourself With
Compassion
This realization can
bring a complicated
mix of relief and
grief. Because when
you see how much
you were shrinking,
you also see how
much of yourself you
held back. But this
isn't something to
judge. You didn't
shrink because you
were weak you
adapted. You tried to
preserve connection,
create safety, and
make something
work. And in doing
so, you learned how
to quiet parts of
yourself that
deserved to be
heard. That doesn't
make you "too
much." It means you
cared.
SHE TALKS | 12
Coming Back
to Yourself
You Were Never
Meant to Be
Smaller
Expanding again doesn't
happen overnight, and it can
feel uncomfortable at first.
Speaking up, expressing your
needs, taking up space it
might all feel unfamiliar, even
a little unsafe. So this isn't
about suddenly becoming
louder. It's about becoming
honest again. That might look
like:
Saying what you feel,
even if your voice shakes
Not apologizing for your
emotions
Letting yourself have
needs without minimizing
them
Not rushing to make
others comfortable at
your own expense
Sometimes it's even
simpler than that.
It's choosing not to
wait for the perfect
time. It's noticing
when something
doesn't sit right and
letting that matter
— not because you
want conflict, but
because you're no
longer willing to
leave yourself
behind to keep the
peace. Those
moments, as small
as they seem, are
how you begin to
rebuild trust with
yourself.
There is nothing wrong with being
expressive, feeling deeply, or wanting
clarity and emotional safety. Those aren't
flaws they're signs that you're paying
attention to your life. The right people
won't need you to be less of yourself to
stay. They won't benefit from your
silence, feel threatened by your voice, or
make you question whether your
presence is too much.
SHE TALKS | 13
A Gentle Closing
A lot of women carry this label long after the relationship ends. They move through
friendships, dating, even work, still trying to manage how they're perceived, still wondering if
they need to "be less" to be accepted. That instinct makes sense, but it isn't where healing
leads. Healing isn't about becoming smaller. It's about becoming safe enough within yourself
that you stop editing who you are. If you've ever felt like you were too much, there's a good
chance you were simply in a space that couldn't hold you. And as you continue to heal, you
won't need to shrink to belong. You'll learn how to stand, calmly and confidently, in who you
are.
https://www.pinterest.com/LaurieSheridanCoach
www.linkedin.com/in/laurie-sheridan
Connect with Laurie
Visit our website
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Cultural Diversity
Cultural Diversity
Highlights and
Highlights and
Social Observances
Social Observances
in June
in June
Cultural Diversity
Highlights and
Social Observances
in June
By Lisa E. Kirkwood
ollowing the month of May, with a
number of cultural and social
celebrations and observances,
throughout June we also acknowledge
and recognize other events of worldwide
importance. Some of these started small, on
a local scale, gradually expanding and being
adopted by entire countries. Today, as part of
our ever-growing global cultural heritage, we
continue to honor events that transcend
borders and bring together various
individuals, groups, and communities.
International Children’s Day. A highlight of
our contemporary society, International
Children’s Day, has been traditionally
celebrated each year since 1950 on June 1 ,
although its exact date of observance varies
by country. For example, in Myanmar,
Children's Day is celebrated on February 13,
in Türkiye it’s on April 23 , in Vanuatu it’s on
July 24, while the US-observed National
Children's Day occurs on the second Sunday
of June.
st
rd
In 1925, International Children's Day was first
proclaimed in Geneva during the World
Conference on Child Welfare. On November
4, 1949, June 1 was established as the Day
for Protection of Children by the Women's
International Democratic Federation.
st
SHE TALKS | 16
Aside from the event on June 1 , the United Nations also recognized World Children's Day. On 14
December 1954, a joint resolution by India and Uruguay was passed in the UN General Assembly to
encourage all countries to institute a Universal Children's Day, firstly to promote mutual exchange
and understanding among children, and secondly to promote the ideals of the UN Charter and the
welfare of the world's children.
st
It is now known as World Children's Day and is celebrated every year on November 20. That date
commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of the Rights of the Child in a unanimous vote by the
United Nations General Assembly on 20 of November 1959. It also marks the date in 1989 when the
UN General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which is a legally binding
document.
th
These themed events complement each other, and both aim for better quality of life not only for
children, but also, by extension, for many underrepresented or underprivileged social groups. The
overall purpose is to ensure proper civic rights, welfare, food security, healthcare, education, and
access to better opportunities. Peace, mutual respect, and environmental concerns, among other
issues, are also addressed by joint global initiatives that protect children and minority groups from
abuse, exploitation, and discrimination.
On June 1 various educational and cultural institutions across the world organize activities for
children, educators, and parents. In many places, the public enjoys free concerts, access to museums,
and entertainment shows performed by and for children on their special day. There are singing,
dancing, and drawing contests, literary and sports competitions, festivals, and games. All these
events not only support children’s well-being, but also build better community relationships, locally,
nationally, and internationally.
st
National Caribbean American
Heritage Month and Immigrant
Heritage Month.
Both celebrated in June, these events recognize the newly
arrived people who come to inhabit this continent and
particularly the United States of America, strengthening our
young nation at all levels of society including government,
sports, entertainment, and the arts.
Caribbean American Heritage Month highlights the
significance of the rich culture, history, and contributions of
people of Caribbean origin and their descendants (both
naturalized and US citizens by birth), a tradition formalized
by congressional and presidential proclamation. The
heritage month was first officially observed in 2006, after
being unanimously adopted by the House of
Representatives on June 27, 2005.
National Immigrant Heritage Month honors the
achievements, cultures, and resilience of immigrants and
refugees. Since its inception in 2014, the month
acknowledges the diverse backgrounds, success stories, and
collective heritage that have shaped America's history and
communities, emphasizes that the U.S. is a nation of
immigrants, and recognizes the societal impact of
newcomers, citizens, and families alike.
Throughout June, organizations like the
American Writers Museum provide resources
to explore the works of immigrant writers, and
campaigns like I Stand With Immigrants
educate the public, coordinate themed
activities, encourage sharing stories, and focus
on embracing the diverse cultural tapestry—
including food, music, and traditions—brought
by immigrants from all over the world, who
have sought haven and opportunity in the
United States of America.
Not just May and June, but every month is a
good month to celebrate people of various
nationalities and ethnicities, with their
individual and collective roles, perspectives,
and values, and to remember that humanity
must prevail despite our differences, as we are
more similar than different - we are all humans
with the same universal needs for
appreciation, respect, and love.
Connect with Lisa
SHE TALKS | 18
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SHE TALKS | 20