➡ CLICK HERE to send me a text, I'd love to hear what you thought about this episode! Leave your name in the text so I know who it's from!

If showing up to a room full of complete strangers, or to a networking event, or to any situation where you must interact with people you've barely met gives you even the slightest amount of anxiety ... today's episode is for you.

Today I talk with Nydia Maurás-Jones, cofounder of Banter Design Co. about the art of small talk. We talk about ways to approach new people, what makes for good conversation, and equally how to escape a bad one.

Find Nydia and her team HERE.

OR meet Nydia in person at Milwaukee's Chapter of Creative Mornings on the third Friday of every month, where Banter is a cosponsor (and responsible for bringing the name tags!) 🎉

If you've got a small talk strategy that works for you, I'd love to hear about it (links below to reach me in all the ways!).

Support the show

I'd love to hear what you think. Drop me a text (linked above) or an email: meagan@meaganschultz.com

Or NEW (!) even more fun, drop me a voice memo HERE!

Cream City Dreams is now Gather Connect Create!

New name, same host 👋🏼 Bite-sized episodes with big connection!

Join me weekly for inspiration, interviews and simple ideas you can use in your own community to create more connections IN REAL LIFE, no matter where you find yourself!

➡ CLICK HERE to send me a text, I'd love to hear what you thought about this episode! Leave your name in the text so I know who it's from!

Now there's a podcast title that will gain NO SEO traction whatsoever.

But it's worth it.

It's a name my mother invented for my daughter, and you'll hear all about how it's run, how it got that title, and why I wanted to share it with you.

Short and sweet this week. If you want a chuckle, give it a listen!

Support the show

I'd love to hear what you think. Drop me a text (linked above) or an email: meagan@meaganschultz.com

Or NEW (!) even more fun, drop me a voice memo HERE!

Cream City Dreams is now Gather Connect Create!

New name, same host 👋🏼 Bite-sized episodes with big connection!

Join me weekly for inspiration, interviews and simple ideas you can use in your own community to create more connections IN REAL LIFE, no matter where you find yourself!

➡ CLICK HERE to send me a text, I'd love to hear what you thought about this episode! Leave your name in the text so I know who it's from!

Today on the podcast, I’m excited to introduce you to a small (but mighty) practice that has changed my life, and the woman who created it. Laurie Wagner is a writer, teacher, retreat leader, traveler, published author, and the founder and guiding force behind Wild Writing, a practice she has been sharing with the world for more than twenty-five years.

At our core, we are all storytellers. Yet so many of us hesitate to call ourselves “writers” because we've been shaped by childhood messages, or that ONE teacher (you remember the one), or our inner voice that measures our words against some idea of what “good writing” is supposed to be.

But Wild Writing is not about "good" writing. It's about "true" writing.

It's about writing so fast and so free, that there isn't time to edit for clarity, or perfection or even soundness of mind. It's about getting the words onto the page that you mean to say, even if they aren't pretty. (And they aren't always pretty!)

But what makes Wild Writing different is the practice of sharing our words aloud, in community.

Listen today as Laurie and I talk about how she got her start with Wild Writing over 35 years ago and how she continues teaching it today to thousands of people around the world.

Links and poets we talk about:

Laurie's own website and ways into Wild Writing

Laurie & Andrea's Wild Wonder Retreats

Write with ME (if you live locally in Milwaukee!)

Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

James Crews

Maya Stein

Support the show

I'd love to hear what you think. Drop me a text (linked above) or an email: meagan@meaganschultz.com

Or NEW (!) even more fun, drop me a voice memo HERE!

Cream City Dreams is now Gather Connect Create!

New name, same host 👋🏼 Bite-sized episodes with big connection!

Join me weekly for inspiration, interviews and simple ideas you can use in your own community to create more connections IN REAL LIFE, no matter where you find yourself!

➡ CLICK HERE to send me a text, I'd love to hear what you thought about this episode! Leave your name in the text so I know who it's from!

Garrett wears so many hats that we could have gone in so many different directions with this conversation, but in today’s episode, we talk about his latest undertaking: The Declaration of Interdependence Relay. (Or just The Relay, for short).

50 gatherings in 50 states in one year.

You’ll hear us talk about where this idea came from, why now, and what he hopes comes from this ambitious project, though admittedly so much is unknown at this early stage, which is just part of the beauty of it!

And while there can only be 50 “official” Relay gatherings, that shouldn't stop any of us from participating, from being a part of this community building movement. Because ultimately, The Relay is asking us to reach out to neighbors, to introduce ourselves, to solve problems for our community in community with each other.

I hope after listening to this, you will follow along! Check out the very throrough website for The Relay with ALL the information you might need to apply to host. (I know he’s still looking for hosts in Alaska!) You can also subscribe to Garrett’s Substack, The White Pages, follow him on Instagram if you are there, or pick up a copy of his book, The Right Kind of White. And after you've check out ALL those ways, get on his mailing list so that you can join a Barnraisers Project Cohort when they open again later this year!

Speaking of gatherings, registration is open and spots are filling (fast!) for my women’s circles starting in April! And I would love to have you join me if you’re local. Click HERE to find out more and to register!

Support the show

I'd love to hear what you think. Drop me a text (linked above) or an email: meagan@meaganschultz.com

Or NEW (!) even more fun, drop me a voice memo HERE!

Cream City Dreams is now Gather Connect Create!

New name, same host 👋🏼 Bite-sized episodes with big connection!

Join me weekly for inspiration, interviews and simple ideas you can use in your own community to create more connections IN REAL LIFE, no matter where you find yourself!

➡ CLICK HERE to send me a text, I'd love to hear what you thought about this episode! Leave your name in the text so I know who it's from!

In today's episode, my friend and neighbor Maura Flaherty, shares the secrets of her longstanding Cookbook Club. For the last 4-5 years, she and 6 other women have been meeting and sharing recipes from a rotating cast of cookbooks and (sometimes) celebrity chefs.

And while the recipes have had their moments (see below for some of the faves!), they aren’t the true stars of these evenings. That honor belongs to the friends, and to the friendships they’ve built, nurtured, and deepened across all the courses life has served. (and life has served them some gristle, as you'll hear).

I'm so happy to share the tips from Maura about how you might consider creating one of these clubs yourself. And before you turn up your nose because you don't consider yourself a foodie - there's always room at the table for a cocktail or a mocktail! So don't let your skills in the kitchen be a deciding (or limiting!) factor.

Support the show

I'd love to hear what you think. Drop me a text (linked above) or an email: meagan@meaganschultz.com

Or NEW (!) even more fun, drop me a voice memo HERE!

Cream City Dreams is now Gather Connect Create!

New name, same host 👋🏼 Bite-sized episodes with big connection!

Join me weekly for inspiration, interviews and simple ideas you can use in your own community to create more connections IN REAL LIFE, no matter where you find yourself!

➡ CLICK HERE to send me a text, I'd love to hear what you thought about this episode! Leave your name in the text so I know who it's from!

Today on the podcast, I'm reflecting on the last four episodes of the podcast, where I've talked at great length about screens. It's a conversation that isn't going anywhere anytime soon, so it's important that we keep talking about it. But if this conversation about screen time brings up feelings of shame or embarrassment, guilt or discomfort, then today's bite-sized episode might leave you feeling a little better.

YOU ARE NOT ALONE. And in this screen-obsessed, screen-addicted culture we find ourselves in, IT'S NOT YOUR FAULT. We've been given these pocket-sized slot machines without an instruction manual. We're all learning this together.

Plus I end with a beautiful poem from Laura Grace Weldon

Instead of Clicking on ChatGPT.

Enjoy!

Support the show

I'd love to hear what you think. Drop me a text (linked above) or an email: meagan@meaganschultz.com

Or NEW (!) even more fun, drop me a voice memo HERE!

Cream City Dreams is now Gather Connect Create!

New name, same host 👋🏼 Bite-sized episodes with big connection!

Join me weekly for inspiration, interviews and simple ideas you can use in your own community to create more connections IN REAL LIFE, no matter where you find yourself!

➡ CLICK HERE to send me a text, I'd love to hear what you thought about this episode! Leave your name in the text so I know who it's from!

Today on the podcast, I'm excited to introduce you to my niece, Sophia and my sister, Molly.

In less than a week, Sophia will turn 13 and I wanted to bring her on the podcast so that - for this last episode of the February series on screens - I could stop talking about teenagers in the hypothetical and start talking to teenagers in real life.

Molly texted me after our conversation and asked if there were anything I wanted her to redo, or elaborate on or otherwise say to make it better. But I think this episode is beautiful just as it is.

I hope you hear that too.

Initially I set out to review the book The Amazing Generation, written by Jonathan Haidt and Catherine Price, released earlier this year. Jonathan Haidt also wrote The Anxious Generation and he's been making the rounds promoting screen-and-social-media-free-childhoods for the last few years. (No doubt, you've heard of him). This book is written for kids, tweens and teens, calling itself "a handbook for living a happy and exciting life that isn’t hijacked by a smartphone."

But what you also get (consider it my two-fer to you) ... is an insightful, raw and honest conversation between a mother and daughter (and auntie!). You hear what a conversation about screens can sound like, and a template for sharing the vulnerabilities that come with wanting to move beyond the 'do as I say, not as I do' parenting model.

You'll hear why I didn't want to change a thing when my sister asked if there were anything she could have said to make it better.

Maybe this will inspire you to have a similar conversation if you've got kids. And if you don't, surely you know someone who might benefit from a conversation like this? I'd be grateful if you'd share it!

Links:

Book: The Amazing Generation

Authors' websites: Jonathan Haidt, Catherine Price

Wait until 8th pledge

Support the show

I'd love to hear what you think. Drop me a text (linked above) or an email: meagan@meaganschultz.com

Or NEW (!) even more fun, drop me a voice memo HERE!

Cream City Dreams is now Gather Connect Create!

New name, same host 👋🏼 Bite-sized episodes with big connection!

Join me weekly for inspiration, interviews and simple ideas you can use in your own community to create more connections IN REAL LIFE, no matter where you find yourself!

➡ CLICK HERE to send me a text, I'd love to hear what you thought about this episode! Leave your name in the text so I know who it's from!

A few weeks ago, Thekla Brumder Ross and I hosted a live panel with last week's guest, Kat Zilka, Founder and Executive Director of Dis/Connect, and two of the high schoolers who are a part of the Dis/Connect movement.

It was eye-opening, to say the very least!

Today on the podcast, Thekla and I breakdown our three most inspirational takeaways from this conversation. You need not have been present to understand the profundity of what the students had to teach us.

Plus, we catch up on what has been happening since our deep dive on attention last May and some exciting news in Thekla's world. (cough, cough, BOOK DEAL, cough, cough, COMING SOON!) Hear more about what this is about and when you can expect to see it on shelves near you!

And if you are inspired to reach out to Thekla to connect or share a personal story with her that *could* be included in her book, you can find her on LinkedIn.

Also - I would love love LOVE to hear tiny steps YOU'VE been taking (if you have) to notice your own screen time use, or to check yourself, or to keep yourself accountable. I hope to have a short and sweet episode sharing fun ideas we can ALL try to be more present and connected with ourselves! Would you leave me a voice memo HERE? (or just reply to this email if that feels more comfortable!)

Support the show

I'd love to hear what you think. Drop me a text (linked above) or an email: meagan@meaganschultz.com

Or NEW (!) even more fun, drop me a voice memo HERE!

Cream City Dreams is now Gather Connect Create!

New name, same host 👋🏼 Bite-sized episodes with big connection!

Join me weekly for inspiration, interviews and simple ideas you can use in your own community to create more connections IN REAL LIFE, no matter where you find yourself!