๐ Wonderful Wednesday: Honoring Our Veterans ๐บ๐ธ
Usually on Wednesdays I celebrate a Wonder Woman. Today I'm changing it up. It's Veterans Day, so today is Wonderful Wednesday, for all the wonderful veterans.
Men and women. Every branch. The ones who served a few years and the ones who gave a whole career. The ones we know by name, and the ones we never got to thank.
You stepped up when it mattered. You carried things most of us will never have to carry. And a lot of you came home and kept on serving, in your communities, your jobs, and your families.
Thank you. Today and every day. ๐
#WonderfulWednesday #VeteransDay #WeGrowOurOwn #ILoveLee
๐ฉฐ Tutu Tuesday: Always Faithful ๐บ๐ธ
Today is the Marine Corps birthday. 251 years, since November 10, 1775.
Their motto is Semper Fidelis. Always faithful. They've carried it since 1883.
I've been thinking about what that takes. A tutu looks effortless on stage. But nobody sees the early mornings, the sore feet, showing up again and again when nobody's clapping.
Marines don't get handed "always faithful". They earn it by showing up. For each other, for their mission, for the people back home.
The tutu/uniform is just what you see on the outside. The faithful part is everything underneath.
So today I'm wearing mine for every Marine, active, veteran, and the families who stand with them. Thank you. Happy birthday. ๐
What does "always faithful" look like in your life right now?
#TutuTuesday #MarineCorpsBirthday #SemperFi #WeGrowOurOwn #ILoveLee
๐ง Memory Monday: Remember the Data ๐
I feel bad for the data. It gets a bad rap. People get stirred up about data centers, but we depend on the storage, compute, and networking inside them. I think we need to look at what weโre putting into those systems, too.
If I post on Facebook a million times that the world is going to end tomorrow, Iโve created a lot of data and provided no evidence. Every share can carry that claim farther from its source. Now somebody else saves it, quotes it, or feeds it into another system without checking where it came from.
Thatโs the data-quality problem Iโm talking about. Weโre storing and reusing information without necessarily verifying it.
โ๏ธ Data hygiene is part of managing that information lifecycle. Check the source. Preserve the context. Verify accuracy before sharing. Saving a claim in a database doesnโt validate it, and feeding it into an AI system doesnโt fix its provenanceโwhere it came from or how it was collected.
Data sovereignty gets into jurisdiction and control. Where is the data physically stored? Which laws apply? Who controls access and the encryption keys? What rights does the provider have under its terms?
The cloud still runs on physical infrastructure. Our photos, messages, and records may exist across production storage, replicas, and backups. Deleting the copy we see doesnโt necessarily mean every retained copy disappears immediately. That depends on the systemโs architecture and retention policies.
I want to know whether I can export my data in a usable format, revoke access, and understand what remains after deletion. I want to be responsible for what I put into these systems and understand what happens to it once itโs there.
๐ฆ Do you know where your data livesโand how much control you actually have over it?
#MemoryMonday #WeGrowOurOwn #GrowingUnicorns #UnicornEffect #ILoveLee
๐ชฆ Fabulous Funeral Friday: The Fear of Change
Today I'm burying the fear of change.
Fear in this form is debilitating. It doesn't look like panic. It looks like standing still and calling it being careful.
I see it in technology. I see it in old towns and municipalities and the way they think. I even see it in the wiser, seasoned people in my family and around me, people with so much to give.
It sounds like "that's how we've always done it."
Or "that won't work here."
Or a quiet no before anybody's even heard the idea.
And it stops things. Good ideas, good people, whole communities, all frozen in place because something new feels like a threat.
I get it. Change feels like losing something. Sometimes it is.
But staying stuck costs something too. We just don't see the bill until later.
So today it goes in the ground. ๐ชฆ
Not the wisdom. Not the history. I'm keeping all of that.
Just the fear.
What's a change you were scared of that turned out to be the best thing that happened?
#WeGrowOurOwn #GrowingUnicorns #UnicornEffect #ILoveLee
๐ฆ Unicorn Thursday: Growing Future Unicorns ๐ฑ๐ฅ
Today I'm thinking about the Growing Future Unicorns program.
Not the flashy kind of unicorn.
The real kind.
The ones who ask better questions than the people who've been in the room for twenty years.
The ones who get curious across lanes and then actually build what works. ๐ง โ๏ธ
Where I live, people still talk like talent has to leave to matter.
Like the serious work only happens somewhere else.
We're building something different.
We grow our own.
Through Growing Future Unicorns, I'm pouring into the young people I volunteer with right here at home.
Not as charity.
As strategy. ๐
Because the next technical unicorns aren't waiting for permission from a coast.
They're already here.
They're already solving.
They just need someone who sees them before the world tries to talk them out of themselves.
That's the work.
Clear the airspace.
Hand them tools.
Stay close enough to catch them when the first hard "no" shows up.
Then watch them take the room.
I don't need them to be finished.
I need them to stay curious.
Who's a future unicorn you're already investing in?
#UnicornThursday #WeGrowOurOwn #GrowingUnicorns #UnicornEffect #ILoveLee
๐ฆธโโ๏ธ Wonder Woman Wednesday: Melanie Perkins ๐๐ฅ
Today's Wonder Woman is Melanie Perkins, co-founder and CEO of Canva.
Her story didn't start in a boardroom.
It started with a university student in Perth teaching other students how to use design softwareโฆ and watching them struggle with it.
She saw the problem clearly.
The tools were hard. They didn't have to be.
So she started small. ๐ฑ
A yearbook design business run out of her mom's house.
Proof first. Then the bigger idea.
And then came the part nobody puts on the poster.
She pitched investors over and over and heard no over and over.
She kept refining the pitch and kept showing up.
She even learned to kitesurf to get time with one of them. ๐
That's the part that gets me.
Not the size of what Canva became.
The stubbornness of believing a problem was worth solving before anyone else agreed.
โ๏ธ She didn't build a fancier tool for experts.
She built a door so everyone else could walk in.
That's unicorn work. ๐ฆ
Seeing who gets left out and building so they don't have to be.
I think about that with the young people I volunteer with.
Most of them don't need someone to tell them they're creative.
They need someone to take the walls down so they can prove it.
What's a "no" you heard that ended up pointing you in the right direction?
#WonderWomanWednesday #WeGrowOurOwn #GrowingUnicorns #UnicornEffect #ILoveLee
๐ฉฐ Tutu Tuesday: Twirl on a Hard Day ๐๐ฅ
Some mornings the tutu is the last thing I want to put on.
The to-do list is loud. The coffee isn't working yet. And there's a little voice saying, "Not today. Just get through it." ๐ฎโ๐จ
Those are the mornings I put it on anyway.
Not because I feel like twirling. Because I don't. ๐ฉฐ
Here's what I've learned after a lot of Tuesdays. Joy doesn't always show up first. Sometimes you have to make the first move, and it catches up with you somewhere around the second spin.
Yesterday I talked about not letting people farm bad energy in your garden. ๐ฑ But some days the bad energy isn't coming from anyone else. It's just the day. It's heavy, and it's real, and you don't have to pretend it isn't.
You just don't have to let it pick your outfit. ๐
Twirling on a hard day doesn't mean the hard part goes away. It means I get a say in the energy I carry into it. It's choosing to show up with a little color when everything feels gray. ๐
And here's the thing about showing up that way. Somebody else is having a hard day too. The young people I volunteer with, the folks building something here at home, the friend who hasn't said a word about what they're carrying. When they see somebody spin anyway, it gives them permission to do the same. ๐ฆ
So if today is heavy, put on the tutu. Or the bright socks, or the loud earrings, or whatever your version is.
Then twirl. Just once. See what catches up with you. โจ
What's your "twirl anyway" move on a hard day?
#TutuTuesday #WeGrowOurOwn #GrowingUnicorns #UnicornEffect #ILoveLee
๐ง Memory Monday: Remember Why You Do It ๐ฑ๐
Remember why you do what you do.
It's easy to lose faith in your goals and your passions when you're surrounded by bad energy. And it's out there. Everywhere.
"I can't."
"You can't."
"It's hopeless."
"It's not my fault."
Some days it feels like there are whole farms of it, planting and harvesting that stuff around the clock. It's exhausting. ๐ฎโ๐จ
Then a student I've been tech coaching handed me a present. A flag they made for me. Wooden boards painted in pink and purple stripes, with a unicorn right there in the corner. ๐ฆ
They spent their time on me.
That's why I do it. ๐
Moments like that are where the impact shows up, and when it does, every one of those negative energy farms just falls down. All that noise loses its grip because something real just happened right in front of you. ๐ฅ
So hold on to those moments. Keep the flag where you can see it.
Those are your fuel for the next time you let someone grow bad energy in your garden. ๐ฑ And trust me, there will be a next time. Pull the weeds, water what's real, and remember who you're growing it for. ๐ฆ
What's the moment that reminds you why you do what you do?
#MemoryMonday #WeGrowOurOwn #GrowingUnicorns #UnicornEffect #ILoveLee
๐ชฆ Fabulous Funeral Friday: The Ghosts in the Hallway ๐ป๐ฏ๏ธ
Every builder lives in a haunted house. ๐๏ธ
You don't see the ghosts at first. You hear them. A creak in the floorboards right when you're about to launch. A cold draft the second you raise your price. A whisper in the hallway that sounds a lot like an old boss, an old teacher, or an old version of you:
"Who do you think you are?"
"That'll never work here."
"Stay small. It's safer."
They've been living in the walls for years. They moved in during every meeting where you got talked over, and every time someone laughed at the idea before they understood it. ๐ง
Here's the creepiest part. Most of the people who said those things moved on a long time ago. They forgot. But the ghosts stayed, and we've been feeding them.
We set a place for them at the table. We let them sit in on every decision. We keep the lights low so we don't upset them. ๐ฏ๏ธ
Not this year.
This Halloween I'm walking through every room in the house. I'm turning on the lights, opening the windows, and telling every one of those ghosts the same thing: you don't live here anymore. ๐ฅ
They don't get a seat at my table, a vote in my business, or a voice in what I build next.
Some of them will rattle a few chains on their way out. Let them. ๐ชฆ
The house is mine. The hallway is quiet. And for the first time in a long time, I can hear myself think. ๐๐ฆ
What ghost are you evicting this Halloween?
#FabulousFuneralFriday #WeGrowOurOwn #GrowingUnicorns #UnicornEffect #ILoveLee
๐ฆ Unicorn Thursday: The Ones Who Keep Going ๐ฅ๐
Today I want to celebrate a certain kind of unicorn.
Not the shiny one everyone claps for. The one who walked into the room with an idea nobody was ready for and got told no. Got talked over. Got called too much, too different, too far ahead, or just plain wrong. ๐ง
The one whose methods didn't match the playbook. Whose craft didn't fit the box. Whose way of seeing things made people uncomfortable before it made them curious.
And they kept going.
I know a lot of these unicorns. Some of them are quiet about it. They take the hit, go back to the workshop, and keep building. Others push back loud and clear. Either way, they don't let the noise decide what their idea is worth. โ๏ธ
That isn't stubbornness. It's conviction backed by curiosity. They keep testing, learning, adjusting, and showing up, and somewhere along the way the "crazy idea" turns into the thing that works. ๐ฑ
If you're in the middle of that right now, getting beat down for how you think or what you're building, hear me: you're not alone, and you're not wrong just because you're early.
Keep going, strong unicorns. The world needs what you're building. ๐ฆ๐ฅ
Who's the strong unicorn in your life who never quit on their idea?
#UnicornThursday #WeGrowOurOwn #GrowingUnicorns #UnicornEffect #ILoveLee
๐ฆธโโ๏ธ Wonder Woman Wednesday: We Shouldn't Have to Drive Hours for This ๐๐ฑ
Today's Wonder Woman is right here in our mountains. Her name is Heather Askea, and yes, I love that she's a fellow Heather. ๐
Heather took a group of middle school girls to a coding camp in East Tennessee. Somewhere on that trip she landed on a thought that changed everything: "We shouldn't have to drive hours for this." ๐ง
A lot of us have had that thought. She did something about it.
She built STREAMWISE at UVA Wise, starting with a grant and a stack of drones, iPads, robots, and STEM kits. Now kids across Southwest Virginia are coding, building, and pitching their own ideas. As of last fall, her SWVA Can Code program had reached more than 500 students across 15 school divisions. She also hosts the Robot Drone League Appalachian Regionals. โ๏ธ๐ฅ
None of this came out of nowhere. Heather was one of Wise County's first instructional technology teachers, and she spent years quietly training the teachers who train our kids. In 2024 the Virginia Society for Technology in Education named her Leader of the Year.
My favorite part is that she has college students co-teaching the coding and robotics. Young people from here are teaching younger people from here. That's how a pipeline actually works. ๐ฑ
One thing she said stuck with me: "Our goal is to help students learn to do hard things until they're not hard anymore." ๐ฆ
That's We Grow Our Own. We don't wait for opportunity to come from somewhere else. We build it at home, so the young people I volunteer with never have to leave to find their spark.
Who's the person in your community who saw a gap and justโฆ built the bridge?
#WonderWomanWednesday #WeGrowOurOwn #GrowingUnicorns #UnicornEffect #ILoveLee
๐ฉฐ Tutu Tuesday: The Layers That Hold Us Up ๐๐ฑ
A tutu isn't one big piece of fabric. It's dozens of thin layers of tulle, and none of them could stand out on its own. Stacked together, they lift.
That's what community is to me.
๐ฑ There's the layer of young people I volunteer with, still figuring out who they are, and brave enough to try.
๐จ There's the layer of artists and crafters, the friends who remind me that making something with your hands and making something with code come from the same place.
โ๏ธ There's the layer of small-business owners, the ones who open the doors every morning and keep this place running.
๐ง There's the layer of mentors and the women who came before me, whose mistakes and wins taught me what to carry forward.
๐ฆ And somewhere in the middle there's me, one thin layer, trying to add a little lift.
๐ฅ Alone, any one of us can feel flimsy. Too sheer, too small, easy to see through. But layered together, we hold shape. We hold each other.
๐ That's We Grow Our Own. Not one hero, but many thin layers, stacked with care, building something that stands.
Which layer are you adding to your community right now?
#TutuTuesday #WeGrowOurOwn #GrowingUnicorns #UnicornEffect #ILoveLee
๐ง Memory Monday: Remember to Tend What You Built ๐ฑโ๏ธ
Today I'm wearing my comfy build-day favorite, the outfit for the days that don't make the highlight reel.
โ๏ธ My morning is blocked for tech stack maintenance. Updates, patches, checking connections, cleaning up what I set up months ago and haven't looked at since. Nobody claps for this part.
๐ง But I've learned that building something is only the beginning. If you don't tend it, it slowly stops working for you. Quietly, then all at once.
๐ฑ It's true of systems, and it's true of everything else we build. Relationships, communities, the young people we mentor, our own energy. They all need upkeep, not just a launch.
๐ฅ We celebrate the build. We should also honor the maintenance. That's the steady, unglamorous work that keeps the good stuff standing.
๐ So this Monday, I'm remembering to tend what I built.
What's one thing you've built that could use a little care this week?
#MemoryMonday #WeGrowOurOwn #GrowingUnicorns #UnicornEffect #ILoveLee
๐ชฆ Fabulous Funeral Friday: "It Only Counts Once It Pays" ๐๐ฆ
Today I'm burying a belief I've watched hold too many good people back, me included: the idea that what you put in doesn't count until there's cash behind it.
โ๏ธ The late nights, the problem solving, the relationships, the sketches nobody's seen yet. We treat all of that like it's a waiting room, like it isn't real until a check clears.
๐ง But sweat equity is equity. The work you put in before the money shows up is the foundation the money stands on. If you don't count it, nobody else will either.
๐ฅ On Monday I wrote about remembering what you're worth. This is the other half of that. Your worth doesn't switch on the day you get paid. It was there the whole time you were building.
๐ฑ That matters here at home. So many people are building something real, right now, with no funding yet, and they're quietly telling themselves it doesn't count.
๐ชฆ So today we bury "it only counts once it pays." Rest in peace. You kept a lot of us small.
๐ What have you been building that deserves more credit than you've been giving it?
#FabulousFuneralFriday #WeGrowOurOwn #GrowingUnicorns #UnicornEffect #ILoveLee
๐ฆ Unicorn Thursday: The Small-Business Unicorns ๐ฑโ๏ธ
This morning I'm thinking about a different kind of unicorn. Not the billion-dollar startup kind. The kind who runs a small business here at home and decides to learn the system instead of letting it scare them off.
โ๏ธ There's a SWaM and eVA workshop at MECC today. That's state certification and state procurement, the paperwork-heavy side of growing a business. It's not glamorous, and nobody makes a movie about registering as a vendor.
๐ง But that's exactly what unicorns do. They get curious about the thing that looks complicated, they break it down, and they figure out how to make it work for them. Same problem-solving muscle, different lane.
๐ฅ Every local owner who learns how to compete for bigger work is building something that stays here. Their jobs stay here, and so does the money they bring in.
๐ฑ That's We Grow Our Own in action. We don't wait for opportunity to move in. We learn the rules, show up, and grow it ourselves.
๐ So here's to the small-business unicorns sitting in that room today, notebooks out, ready to figure it out.
What's one "boring" system you learned that opened a door for you?
#UnicornThursday
#WeGrowOurOwn #GrowingUnicorns #UnicornEffect #ILoveLee
๐ Wonder Woman Wednesday: Play, Power, and the Comeback โก๐ฆ
Today's Wonder Woman turned play into power, and then turned a stumble into a comeback: Jessica O. Matthews.
โ๏ธ At 19, Jessica invented the SOCCKET, a soccer ball that stores energy while kids play so it can power a lamp.
๐ฅ The spark came from frustration. She was in Nigeria for her aunt's wedding when the power went out and a diesel generator started choking the air outside. She thought there had to be a better way, and she went and built one.
๐ชฆ Then came the hard part. Early versions of the ball had durability problems, and her company's Kickstarter didn't go the way anyone hoped. They owned it publicly. She said she was heartbroken, and then she went back to work.
๐ง That's the part I want everyone to hear. Your first version is not your final version. Stumbling in public doesn't end your story. It's part of it.
โก She went on to lead Uncharted, her sustainable infrastructure company, for 15 years. Her patents have been cited by companies like Sony, Qualcomm, Intel, and Toshiba, and the Smithsonian recognized her as a modern-day inventor.
๐ฆ And this year she started over on purpose. She launched Lived Labs, an AI-powered invention studio and community built for people who've been told that inventing belongs to someone else.
๐ฑ That one hits h#WeGrowOurOwn #GrowingUnicorns #UnicornEffect #ILoveLee ome for me here in Lee County. Our young people are surrounded by real problems, and they have the lived experience to solve them. They just need to know they're allowed to start, and that it's okay if the first try breaks.
๐ What would you build if you knew a stumble wasn't the end?
#WonderWomanWednesday #WeGrowOurOwn #GrowingUnicorns #UnicornEffect #ILoveLee
Happy TUTU TUESDAY
I've been thinking about layers this week. ๐ฉฐ
Tutus are funny that way. You can see right through them, layer on layer, and they never really sit still. That's kind of what daughterhood feels like to me right now. I'm standing in a bunch of layers at once.
Every week I talk with a 4-year-old in my family, and you can just hear the curiosity in her voice. She's taking in everything. Understanding so much. It's pure, beautiful intake and I love it. ๐ฑ
Then there are the young people I volunteer with through Open Source Oasis and We Grow Our Own. They're still figuring out their shape, and there's some uncertainty in that. I get it.
My own daughter is in her 20s and just got engaged. ๐ She's building now. Laying down her own foundation, her own way.
And me? Someone was reminiscing with me recently and asked, "Where does the time go?"
Honestly, I don't really go there. I celebrate what was... and then I turn right back around toward what's forming. UNI. Mentoring here in Lee County. The next thing pulls at me way harder than the last one ever could. ๐ฅ
Then there's the oldest layer. The wise one. My mom, my mentors, the women friends who went before me. I've learned from their mistakes, and I've learned from what their wins taught them too. That wisdom shows up in every layer after it, whether we notice it or not. ๐
One layer doesn't make a tutu. It's all of them stacked together, overlapping, still moving. ๐ฆ
So which layer are you in today?
#TutuTuesday #WeGrowOurOwn #UnicornImpact #ILoveLee #WeGrowOurOwn #GrowingUnicorns #UnicornEffect #ILoveLee
Here's today's draft:
Today's memory is a reminder: remember your craft. ๐ง
We get so lost in the daily grind (tickets, meetings, deadlines, the next fire) that we forget the mad scientist inside us. We forget the fun behind what we do.
I have a lot of friends who are artists and crafters. They hold a paintbrush, a needle, a lump of clay, and something comes alive in their hands. ๐จ
My craft looks a little different.
I'm a problem solver. โ๏ธ
Logical breakdown. Taking the tangled mess apart piece by piece until the answer shows itself. Building the solution that actually works.
Strategy is a tool I reach for as often as an artist reaches for a brush. ๐๏ธ
And I think a lot of technologists forget this about themselves. We start believing our value is the certification, the title, or the stack we know. But what makes us awesome is the problem solving. The curiosity. That itch to figure out *why* and then *how*. ๐ฅ
With AI, that craft gets new tools. Now there's logic and reasoning right beside us, ready to help curious people break problems down and solve them faster. AI doesn't replace the craft. It gives the problem solver a bigger workshop. ๐ฆ
So today, remember what you love about your work. Not the grind, the craft.
What's yours? ๐
#MemoryMonday #WeGrowOurOwn #GrowingUnicorns #UnicornEffect #ILoveLee
๐ชฆ Fabulous Funeral Friday: Doing It All Myself ๐ฆ๐
Today I'm burying a habit I've worn so long it started to feel like part of me: doing it all myself.
๐ฑ Later today, I'm having some of our agricultural kids out to the homestead for a loofah project. Young people giving up part of their day to get their hands dirty, learn something, and build something with me.
And it got me thinking.
๐ง I've sat in a lot of school board meetings and Board of Supervisors meetings. I've watched person after person stand up and say, "Somebody needs to do this." Then the meeting ends, and that "somebody" goes back to being the teachers, the school board, and the same handful of people who always show up.
I'm not pointing fingers. I've been one of those default people for a long time. When something needed doing, I just did it. I figured that was what leadership looked like.
๐ฅ But here's what I've learned: carrying everything yourself doesn't make a community strong. It just makes it dependent on whoever's left holding the weight. Eventually that person gets tired, and the work stops.
Helping isn't wrong. Being the only one helping is what costs too much.
๐ That's why those kids coming over today matters so much to me. They didn't stand up and say "someone should." They just showed up. That's the counterweight. That's what community looks like when it actually works.
โ๏ธ So here's my ask. Next time you hear "someone needs to," ask yourself if that someone could be you. Not for everything. Just for one thing. Volunteer for one hour. Take one task off a teacher's plate. Show up to help, not just to speak.
๐ฑ We Grow Our Own only works when we grow it together.
๐ชฆ Rest in peace, "I'll just do it myself." You were dependable. You were also exhausting.
Today I'm making room for the people who show up. ๐ฆโจ
#FabulousFuneralFriday
#WeGrowOurOwn #GrowingUnicorns #UnicornEffect #ILoveLee
๐ฆ Unicorn Thursday: From Coal to Code โ๏ธ๐
Today's unicorn isn't one person. It's an idea that a couple of folks in Eastern Kentucky refused to let die.
In 2014, Rusty Justice and Lynn Parrish were watching out-of-work coal miners in Pikeville struggle to survive, and watching people leave the region to find work. Their partnership was an excavation and engineering company, so they could have just stuck to what they knew.
Instead, they started a software company called Bit Source.
โ๏ธ The plan was simple and bold. Hire former coal workers, teach them to code, and keep the jobs at home.
They put out ads and got nearly 1,000 applicants. They hired ten. After 22 weeks of company-paid training, former miners and industry support workers were building websites, apps, and digital tools for clients across the country.
๐ง Here's the line from Rusty Justice that stopped me: "Coal miners are high-tech workers โ they just get dirty."
He's right. Modern mining runs on computers, robotics, and 3D satellite imaging. The talent was always there. What was missing was someone willing to say, "Let's point it somewhere new."
๐ฅ That's unicorn thinking. You see a skill everyone else calls obsolete, and you see the future in it.
๐ This one hits home for me. Pikeville and Lee County share the same mountains, the same coal history, and the same fear of watching our young people pack up and leave because the opportunities are somewhere else.
๐ฑ Bit Source is proof that the next chapter can be written right here. We don't have to import talent. We have to invest in the people already standing on this ground. Teach the skill, create the job, and let them stay home and build.
That's We Grow Our Own.
๐ฆ The miners didn't stop being smart when the mines closed. They just needed someone to open a new door.
Let's keep opening them. โจ
#UnicornThursday #WeGrowOurOwn #GrowingUnicorns #UnicornEffect #ILoveLee