Notes From Sabbatical: Month 2

TLDR; Planes, Trains, & Flying Cars

Onstage at the Smithsonian during Rise of the Rest’s Annual Beyond Silicon Valley Summit

If you’ve been following along, you may have come across Notes From Sabbatical: Month 1 published at the start of May. I promised myself I’d share notes in the following months to organize my thoughts while communicating what exactly I’ve been up to.

For those of you first-timers to this thread, it’s now been two months since I announced my sabbatical via LinkedIn and Twitter.

I started my second month wrapping a trip to San Francisco, appending another 24 hours in Los Angeles to attend an event around the Milken Conference before flying back home to Nashville. TLDR; it has been fun and soul-filling to see favorite people, discover new places, and visit some all-time favorites along the way.

Month 2 of Sabbatical: The Stats

Sabbatical by the numbers, from May 4 through June 5:

• 7 Cities/Metros: Nashville, Los Angeles, Magnolia Springs/Gulf Shores/Orange Beach, Birmingham, Washington D.C., New York City, ending back in Long Beach, CA (my hometown)
• 8 States Visited or Traveled Through: Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, California
• 5 Airports: BNA, BOS, DCA, LGA, LAX
• 1 Train Ride: I was a first-timer on the Acela Express from Washington Union Station to Penn Station in NYC, and will absolutely be doing this again (so easy!)
• 2 Museums: Visited the Museum of Modern Art in New York City for the Matisse: The Red Studio exhibit; FUTURES exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum’s Arts and Industries Building during Rise of the Rest’s #BeyondSiliconValley annual summit
• 3 Concerts: The Menzingers at Basement East (Nashville, TN), Tim McGraw in Orange Beach to see my husband’s collaborator Alexandra Kay perform songs he co-wrote and produced; and, a friend’s brother played the Knitting Factory Brooklyn
• 2 Arboretums: Discovered the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University thanks to my cousins who’ve lived in Boston since the 1970s — the lilacs are in bloom and fragrant, highly recommend paying them a visit; Madison Square Park is also a Level 2 Arboretum, and one of my favorite stops in Manhattan
• 3 Speaking Opportunities: ‘VC Funding 101’ with Universal Music Group during MusicBiz in Nashville; ‘Growth Company Financing’ with the Nashville Tech Council and London Stock Exchange; ‘The Long Conversation’ with Rise of the Rest in Washington, D.C. at the Smithsonian in front of an actual flying car (see photo above — the Bell Nexus concept known as the Air Taxi)
• 2 VC Mentor Sessions: Shoutouts to AllRaise and Latinx VC for creating meaningful opportunities to connect with industry titans.
• 1 #VCMoodBoard Published: I shipped Volume 4 of my Substack ‘Mood Board’ discussing the motif Ownership.
• 1 Offer Letter Signed: I’ll be sharing more details on this in the coming weeks! Very excited about this next chapter.
• 1 Lobster Consumed: Within hours of landing in Boston for the first time, I enjoyed an obligatory steamed lobster.
• 1 Flight Cancellation: Things happen. Thanks, JFK.
• 0 Tattoos: There were exactly zero tattoos obtained in month 2, which is a significant decrease from the 2 obtained in month 1.

What I’ve Learned in Month 2

• Quiet Paradoxically Begets Momentum — After dusting off during month 1 of sabbatical, I achieved a state of quiet I hadn’t experienced in many years. Sure enough, this sense of quiet helped the gears in my brain naturally start to turn again. This was a hard-earned lesson after forcing myself to constantly work and produce without any true break for a period of 17 years.
• Boundaries Abound — I talked about boundaries in my last sabbatical blog, though realized in month 2 that this would be a recurring theme. I’m inclined to say ‘yes’ to everything, which means saying ‘no’ to myself when I need to rest.
• Hope Gets Us Through — There were several national tragedies that took place this past month. The day after Uvalde, and several days after the terrorist attack in Buffalo, Steve Case opened the Rise of the Rest summit with a message of hope for the future. Entrepreneurs and the investors backing them are inherently committing acts of hope for the future with each company started and check written. I’ll be talking more about hope in my next Mood Board piece (subscribe here).
• Energy Management > Time Management — I had an extended catch-up with an old friend who knows me better than almost anyone, who pointed out that it’s not time management that I’m seeking but rather energy management. So long as I carefully choose the type of energy I welcome into each day — the people I spend time with, projects I take on, time investments in exercise and rejuvenating foods and hydration, books and content I consume — I will be able to achieve my goals.

I officially have one month left of sabbatical. Until next time.

P.S. I scribbled a short free-write into my pocket notebook in front of a coffee shop in Manhattan and debated whether I’d share it publicly. Here goes: