Sarah McNally built Lady Boss during the pandemic, because women were rising alone and she decided they wouldn't have to anymore. In this half of the conversation, she and Sharon talk about what networking looks like when it stops being performance — reciprocity, timing, and the discomfort of asking for help before you feel ready.

Sharon brings her own scene: Walking into an AI event and seeing 27 men. Sarah's answer reframes it — networking isn't cringy work you force yourself through. It's finding something you're genuinely interested in and following it toward people.

This episode launches the Networking Assessment — a free tool that scores how you show up across five clusters: Network Expansion, Follow-Through, Ask Clarity, Visibility, and Reciprocity. Find it at tools.werkitgirls.com/networking-assessment.html

Part 1 on branding, is live now too.

Original music score by Owen Sartori, F5 Soundhouse, Minneapolis.

Your brand isn't the logo, the tagline, or the Instagram grid — but it's talking, whether you're paying attention or not.

Sharon sits down with Sarah McNally, Director of Talent at Endeavor Air and founder of Lady Boss, to talk about what personal brand means: not your intentions, but the experience people have with you.

Spoiler: credibility is easy to lose and hard to earn back. Sarah knows exactly what that costs.

Part 2, on networking, is live now too.

Personal brand concepts referenced in this conversation draw on David McNally and Karl Speak's Be Your Own Brand.

Original score by Owen Sartori, F5 Soundhouse, Minneapolis.

A few weeks ago, I walked myself into an Applied AI event in Minneapolis.

Twenty-seven men. Three women. A keynote speaker who came in with a why — and a room full of people determined to pull him into the how.

This is what I saw. And what almost didn't happen.

EP02 is a story about a woman who almost didn't come back. A graduate student who didn't wait for anyone. And one front-row decision that changed everything.

If you've ever walked into a room and felt like a visitor in your own field — this one's for you.

Women in AI. Showing up. Werk It Girls.

Continuation: EP04 — The bigger story. Why that room looked the way it did. What the data says about women and AI. And what it's going to cost us if we keep waiting to be invited.