TGC Newsletter: The New Year

What I'm Reading

F*ckup Nights is in the business section of The Boston Globe!! How does it start? By highlighting one of my own fuckups. If you’re going to encourage folks to be vulnerable, it’s best to lead by example. The flip side of this excitement grows louder as it feels very odd to be experiencing professional success, recognition, and joy while such horrors continue to poison this country. I find these Fuckup nights to be a cathartic opportunity to regain hope. 

I don’t have much of a good transition here, other than if you’re feeling the pain, disappointment, and shame of this country, you’re not alone. We are failing our neighbors. Maybe, in a lighthearted moment to ease the tension, sharing our mistakes reminds us of the opposite: we’ve succeeded, people are fighting to stop the harm, and community is being built.

Read 'A not-so-safe-for-work networking event lands in Boston' here.

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What I'm Listening To

Nothing. No podcasts, less music. Sitting, listening to the chatter around me. Driving in silence. Listening to my cat breathe. Listening to the branches move in the wind. A different kind of listening. Have you done this for yourself recently? How did it go?

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What I'm Doing

This month, I had to take my own advice. One of the hardest things to do. In one area of my life, I play a leadership role I don’t want. I need more initiatives from the group. I had to check my emotions (anger and frustration) over and over and over again. That was HARD. I asked myself these questions:

1. What culture have I helped create to make room for the behaviors?

2. Where have I gotten frustrated or mad, and what would be their response to that? Is my heated emotion logically unfair to the situation?

3. What do I need from them? What do they need to succeed?

4. Where are my boundaries?

5. What are the boundaries they’ve shared?

6. If this were at my job and I were the boss, how would I approach this?

7. What’s the balance between sharing my emotions and showing them?

I asked for change, shared the emotion, and got a positive response. Cue deep breath.

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What's Moved Me

I started reading one of Andrea Gibson’s poetry books. For those who don’t know, they are a poet and activist known for their powerful words about gender expression and queerness. Highly recommend. I’ll share more another month.

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What I'm Wiggling To

A lot of Brazilian Pop music. Because I’m going to Brazil for 9 days!

Stay Playful,

Tamar

TGC Newsletter: The Turbo Speed Issue

What I'm Reading

I recently finished Brené Brown’s newest book, Strong Ground: The Lessons of Daring Leadership, the Tenacity of Paradox, and the Wisdom of the Human Spirit. She shares lessons from successful leaders around the world, and it can’t help me learn more about leadership and systems thinking: an approach to problem solving by understanding the context and how one decision impacts another.

When making an upcoming decision, consider all the elements of impact or ripple effects. It’s like playing Sudoku; each decision to add a number affects the section, row, and column. As a leader or person of influence, how do your behaviors and decisions impact those around you? How does that affect those around them?

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What I'm Listening To

I recently listened to Madonna’s first podcast interview, from only one month ago. She goes into depth, led by Jay Shetty, on her spiritual practice of Kabbalah. She shares powerful stories of her life, her practice in letting go of control, and how her view of motherhood has changed. Watch it on YouTube here.

From the description:

Together, Jay and Madonna dive into themes of transformation, the search for meaning in suffering, the freedom that comes with radical acceptance, and the power of forgiveness to heal our deepest wounds. Madonna shares the moments that tested her most, from loss and betrayal to near-death experiences, and how each challenge became an opening for growth when she chose to see it through the lens of purpose rather than punishment.

In the second half of the conversation, Jay and Madonna are joined by her longtime Kabbalah teacher, Eitan, for a powerful exploration of spiritual wisdom in action. They discuss why our struggles and inner battles are essential for growth, and how to reframe challenges as opportunities to reveal greater light. Eitan offers practical tools, from pausing and embracing discomfort to practicing “certainty beyond logic,”  to help us find strength in life’s most difficult moments.

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What I'm Doing

Many things to celebrate this month!

F*ckup Nights VOL I

This past month, I co-hosted F*ckup Nights Boston VOL I with my colleague, Sam Feldman, and it was a huge success! We sold out our venue and had three fabulous speakers share their professional failures and lessons learned. The room was packed with energy and laughter as we broke down the stigma of f*cking up.

Save the date: F*ckup Nights Boston VOL II on Thursday, January 22 at 6:30 PM at Trident Bookseller! Find out more on our Instagram or LinkedIn.

The Leader Within

Over the past seven weeks, I’ve been teaching a personal and practical leadership course for Graduate students at Emerson College. I am in awe of the students for their dedication to take a non-credit, optional, weekly course on top of their graduate school class, full-time jobs, family, and personal obligations. 

In the course we:

1. Explored leadership concepts, creating a SMART goal, and reflecting on purpose and values.

2. Developed deep self-awareness through CliftonStrengths, identifying how their strengths help or hinder them, and how external factors influence their effectiveness.

3. Learned to navigate roles as leaders and followers, understanding what they bring, what they need, and how to build trust, stability, compassion, and hope in teams.

4. Practiced active listening and people-management skills, using open-ended questions, deliberate practice, and engagement strategies to support others effectively.

5. Strengthened collaboration and team awareness by applying curiosity, understanding team development stages, exploring team role styles (North/South/East/West), and integrating strengths into teamwork.

6. Built creative and adaptive leadership skills through improv-based exercises, identifying inner critics, and using strengths to navigate change.

In the final assignment, one student shared, “I have hope for the future and feel confident in my ability to lead in the journey ahead, and this class is 100% why.”

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What's Moved Me

Context: I’ve been deeply moved and inspired by the work of career center advisors at colleges and universities across the country who are incorporating Life Design into their programming.

What’s Life Design: It's a theory and process developed by the d.school at Stanford University that combines the Design Thinking methodology and mindsets and applies them to life, careers, projects, and the big decisions we make. It challenges us to be curious, iterate, adapt, reframe challenges, and experiment in our life decisions. It has been transformational for so many. In a conversation with a seasoned practitioner of Life Design in a career center at a major state university, we reframed the push to find “purpose” to the following question:

Question: What is your mission in life, and how will you be intentional in the pursuit? 

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What I'm Wiggling To

Jessie Ware brings together funk, disco, dance, and pop to music you can’t not wiggle to.  I hope you enjoy her song "Begin Again" as much as I do.

Stay Playful,

Tamar

TGC Newsletter: The Scary Issue

What I'm Reading

Navigating failure and setbacks is an emotionally challenging experience. When we’re in it, it may feel like we can’t get out. It can feel alarming, heartbreaking, demotivating, and more. But it’s one moment in time.

I recently failed a student of mine. I did a horrible job advising her and subsequently received a terrible review from the experience. First, I took time to vent and grieve from not meeting my expectations or hers. Second, I recognized where the mistakes were and reminded myself of the positive feedback I’ve received. Lastly, I took a big-picture approach to my professional journey of growth and improvement, and I am able to learn from my failures.

This article helped me get there; it’s from ProFellow, a database of fellowships for professionals in all stages of their career.

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What I'm Listening To

In honor of fear and scary stuff, spooky season, and failure, here’s a podcast about the Human Scream, by Stuff You Should Know.

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What I'm Doing

F*ckup Nights Boston VOL 1 is here! I couldn’t be more excited to share this event with you all. My co-lead, Sam Feldman of Impact Hub, and I are working to bring you an evening of laughter, libations, and lessons learned. Come, bring friends, and enjoy the evening!

Here’s what to expect: 3 fearless speakers sharing their biggest professional disasters. 10 slides. 7 minutes each. Zero sugarcoating. A room packed with brilliant, curious humans who know success is never a straight line. Drinks, community, and vibes that hit harder than your worst pitch meeting.

Details:

• Thursday, November 13, 2025

• Doors open at 6:30, speakers start at 7 pm

• Located at Aeronaut Brewing Company, 14 Tyler St, Somerville

• Link to RSVP: https://bit.ly/BostonFuN

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What's Moved Me

"The only way to develop true confidence is to earn it.

• The confidence that you can bounce back from failure is earned by working through previous failures.

• The confidence that you can deliver the speech is earned by the previous speeches you have given.

• The confidence that you can perform on game day is earned by the previous performances in practice.

In the beginning, you need enough courage to practice even though it may not go very well. And over time, as your skills improve, courage transforms into confidence. Courage first, confidence later."

-James Clear

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What I'm Wiggling To

Olivia Dean’s new album, The Art of Loving!! Olivia Dean has exploded around the world on the Billboard charts for two songs (Man I Need and Lady Lady) on this album, but I have to admit, my favorite is Something Inbetween. Check it out.

Stay Playful,

Tamar