But here’s the truth: I’ve come to realize my calendar can’t run on caffeine and good intentions alone. Coffee chats, just-a-minute calls, “quick favors”—they add up faster than I can say “Sure, I have 15 minutes!” And it turns out, “just a quick question” has a million siblings. 

While I deeply appreciate being seen as a helpful resource, the reality is that I’m juggling a full professional speaking schedule, running a business, raising a family, volunteering my heart out, and occasionally trying to remember what my hobbies used to be. Like so many of us, I want to show up for others—but there’s only so much of me to go around. Time is a precious resource, and when it gets sliced into tiny, unstructured pieces, nobody really gets the best version of me—not my clients, not my family, and not the people who need support.