Knowing what to say and how to say it can be difficult, and there are so many specific scenarios we cannot account for when you are supporting your people. So we built you a method. It’s called the VASE Method, and it stands for: Validate, Acknowledge, Support and Express. It’s like bringing someone flowers: you want to make it easy for them to receive your words.

After months of working together, unraveling these behaviors and the reasons why I was in that relationship and at the time staying in that relationship, I had this realization one day. This frustrating and sad realization. The question that kept pressing on me was “Do I even exist? As I know myself, which parts are me are my personality, and what’s just a byproduct of my experience?”

We are worthy of boundaries that protect us and allow us to love people at the same time. We are worthy of surrounding ourselves with people who celebrate us and mourn alongside us. We are worthy of building a professional circle filled with those who believe, like us, that a rising tide lifts all boats. And by we I do mean all of us, you, me, my sister. We are all worthy of this.

What do you see when you look at this picture? I'll tell you what I see. I see two sisters laughing. I see an unscripted moment between two women who work hard for their community to lift them up and celebrate them. Two women who work so hard to support everyone from the Freshies to the Experts, from their close friends to the journalists they work with every day. I see outfits they worked hard to coordinate and make sure they both felt good in. I see two women who have been told their whole lives they are at once too much and not enough. 

Meet Genevieve, creative director and chief ops officer over at Fresh Starts Registry. She started over after 10 years with her partner and 6 years living with him. She walked away with her clothes, baking supplies and everything she’d pilfered from her grandmother.