A Bit of Optimism

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How to Trust Yourself When Everyone Has an Opinion with Love Thy Nader's Mary Holland Nader

August 25, 2026

Maybe this sounds familiar: you finally get the opportunity you've been waiting for, and the voice in your head says, "I'm not ready, I don't belong here."  Now imagine hearing that voice with millions of people watching. Mary Holland Nader has lived it. She never dreamed of fame, but when Hulu's reality series Love Thy Nader came knocking, she traded her secure Wall Street job for the spotlight and put her new platform to work. It allowed her to launch Mary & Pip, a purpose-driven fint...

What Happens When You Bet on Yourself with Ted Lasso’s Brendan Hunt

August 18, 2026

Maybe you know the feeling: everyone around you seems to be getting ahead, and every hour you spend on something "frivolous" — the hobby, the detour, the game on a Sunday afternoon — feels like falling behind.  Brendan Hunt's career is proof those hours are never wasted. The detour turned out to be the path all along. Most of us know Brendan as Coach Beard and as the Emmy Award-winning co-creator of Ted Lasso. But before any of that, he was an unknown Chicago improv actor when the Amsterd...

How to Say the Hard Thing and Keep the Relationship | A Bit of Optimism: Feelings at Work | PART 5

August 11, 2026

Every lasting relationship has survived at least a few hard conversations.  But most of us would still rather not have them... So we put them off and tell ourselves the tension will fade on its own. Instead it goes underground: into the stories we build about people, the resentments we quietly collect, and the side-texts we send about a colleague we won't talk to directly. But a hard conversation is a short burst of discomfort in exchange for something better on the other side: trust, c...