Welcome to The Joyful Rebellion!

Because setting boundaries, resting well, and building healthier systems is radical.

🧪What's New In the Lab

February was busy! One of the highlights was speaking about Boundaries: The Leadership Habit that Builds Trust, Prevents Burnout, and Drives Results at the Junior League of St. Petersburg February General Membership Meeting. It nicely coincided with the launch of a new Junior League National Initiative called Every Woman. All Things. that challenges the idea that burnout, role strain, and exhaustion are the price of impact.

When we prioritize our wellbeing, we can show up better for each other and the people we serve. Thanks to Jaimie, Brit, and Kelsey Yates for the opportunity to share this important work.

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✍🏽 The Better Boundaries Brief

Job Loss, Mental Health, and the Myth of Stability at Work​
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When I left my job at the end of 2023, the hardest part wasn't leaving, it was losing a safety net.
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No paycheck. No employer-sponsored health insurance. No predictability. It was a reminder that our workforce is designed for employers, not employees. We need work for income, purpose, and connection, but the tradeoff is often our physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing.
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This edition explores unemployment, mental health, and economic stability as a social determinant of health, and why Black women, caregivers, and people with disabilities bear disproportionate risk.

Read Now

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🎧 Work Is Third: Podcast Spotlight

Healing, Sovereignty & Community Leadership | Chris Tall Bear, Southern Cheyenne

What does real healing look like after historical trauma, and how do we carry sovereignty, ceremony, and leadership into modern life?

In this episode of Work Is Third, I sit down with Southern Cheyenne Chris Tall Bear for a deeply grounded conversation about healing, history, and the responsibility of leadership.

Chris is a Tribal public health advisor and community leader. In this conversation, he shares his experience as a descendant of survivors of the Sand Creek Massacre and his role in memorialization efforts.

Chris also reflects on his personal journey, his family legacy, and his emerging consulting work focused on cultural engagement and traditional healing. This episode is about sovereignty, ceremony, and the kind of leadership that sustains communities across generations.

Learn more about Chris:

Website: https://www.tallbearllc.com/
Article: Colorado cannot heal until it confronts Sand Creek honestly​

Listen Now

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📊Data That Matters

Why this matters

People with disabilities are significantly more likely to be self-employed or entrepreneurs and continue to experience employment barriers that intersect with race and ethnicity.

For example, while 68.1% of people without disabilities are in the labor force, this number is significantly lower for white people with disabilities (24.4%), Black people with disabilities (23.3%), Asian American people with disabilities (18.5%), and Hispanic or Latino people with disabilities (26.7%).

Link: National Partnership for Women & Families, Disabled employment is at a record high, but disparities remain​

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💬Quote of the Week

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📓 Journal Prompt

• What systems (workplace, healthcare, income, leadership culture) have I relied on as a safety net — and where are they actually fragile?
• If my wellbeing were non-negotiable, what boundary would I strengthen right now?

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🌞 Affirmation of the Week

I can build stability rooted in values, boundaries, and community.

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💫 Closing Reflection

We are taught that stability comes from proximity to power: a job title, an employer, an institution.

But as this edition reminds us, those structures are often conditional. And for many, especially Black women, caregivers, people with disabilities, and historically marginalized communities, that “safety net” has always been thinner.

Real stability is:​
...sovereignty over your time, your health, your voice.
...leadership that honors tradition, ceremony, and community.
...boundaries that let you live in alignment.
...building systems that don’t require us to sacrifice who we are.

Work matters. Community matters. Impact matters.

But Work Is Third.

And when we start living like that’s true, as individuals and a collective, we begin building something far more stable than any job could offer.

With care and rebellion,
Dawn ✨

🤝🏽Let’s Work Together

Ready to build systems that support better ways to live and lead?​
I partner with organizations to create the conditions for everyone to thrive, through education, training, skill building, strategic planning, and implementation.
👉 Book a call and let’s build something better together.

Book a Discovery Call