Presented by Top Shelf
Hey there, {{first_name | friend}},
One of my first-grade daughters made me this “Welcome to 2026” sign this week and it feels right on time to me. Even though the calendar says I’m 9 months into this year, back to school means a brand-new start and my family is just settling into our routines as the summer season wraps up with Labor Day.
Our summer had “high highs” with fun trips and great camps, and some “low lows” with lice (yep) and mold in our home (all resolved now). I know by the time next summer rolls around, this will all be a distant memory. But I have one simple AI habit that helps me with this: I do seasonal retrospectives.
When I worked in technology, we ran a retrospective at the end of every sprint and project. The team sat down and answers a short set of questions about the stretch of work that just ended. What worked. What didn't. What we're changing.
Now I do this with my family, and I have it down to a science. Here’s how you can do it with yours. I promise, future you will thank you.
All you need:
10 minutes
An AI tool that has AI Voice Mode (ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini will all do fine)
How to do it:
Find a quiet space and open AI Voice Mode in your tool of choice.
Prompt your AI tool to “Interview me to debrief on my summer in the style of an agile retrospective.”
Just start talking about the summer:
What went well
What went wrong
What improvements can be made next time
Ask your AI tool to summarize and (if your calendar is connected) save them on your calendar in an entry called “Summer Planning Jumpstart” on the day you usually start summer planning (for me, camp planning starts 1/1).
If your calendar isn’t connected, you can copy and paste them to your calendar
Here’s what came out of mine:
Next year, I will:
Block Friday afternoons during camp weeks so I can hopefully attend more of the end-of-camp celebrations
Add notes in my calendar after booking camps so I remember which friends are attending with the girls
Not freak out when “disaster” strikes (like lice, or mold.). Nothing is ever as bad (or as good) as it seems. Just take a breath. Then make a plan to respond using my AI project manager.
That’s not rocket science, but I know it will make my life easier next year. Hit reply and tell me what comes out of yours!
Now Streaming: What Are You Truly Ambitious For?
This week on the podcast, I talked with Dr. Anne Welsh, psychologist and author of the new book Ambitious Mother, about a question that turns out to be more complicated than it sounds: are you ambitious? Anne helped me see ambition less as a ladder and more as a web, something we can move across in a dozen directions and still be exactly as ambitious as we have always been. If you have ever wondered whether becoming a parent or caregiver cost you your ambition, I think this conversation will bring you some clarity. For more on Anne and her book, Ambitious Mother: drannewelsh.com
AI-EMPOWERED MOM
What Are You Truly Ambitious For? with Dr. Anne Welsh
Stepmoms, Join Me for Free at The Stepmom Summit: Out Loud
The cleats are at the other house. Again.
If you are a stepparent, you know that one. The calendar spanning two households, the mental inventory of what is at which house, the text to the co-parent you rewrite 4 times before you hit send.
Cameron Gilreath Normand built Stepfamily Solutions for exactly this reality, and I am speaking at her Stepmom Summit on Wednesday, September 16 at 1 PM ET. My session is “Let AI Remember the Cleats and Write the Hard Text.” As always, no tech skills required, and you’ll leave with ideas you can use in your household this week.
The whole summit is free, fully virtual, and 100% live, with 30+ speakers you can talk to in real time.
Stepmoms, hope to see you there. Not a stepmom? Share this with one in your circle. Bet you know at least one of the 14 million out there!
What does Labor Day Weekend look like at your house? We’re at home as I gear up for some busy travel weeks ahead. I’ll be in Boston, Cancun, Dallas, Fort Lauderdale, and San Francisco before Thanksgiving. If you’re in one of those cities and would like to get together, or if you’d like to add a visit to your city to my itinerary, grab 15 minutes here.
Until next time,
P.S. People always ask if AI writes my newsletter. For this edition, I wrote the first draft, used Claude to edit it, and then my amazing (human) assistant, Ben, put it into Beehiiv, my newsletter tool.
I’m Sarah, mom of 3 girls, MBA, and AI strategist. I created AI-Empowered MomTM to share practical, responsible ways AI can help lighten the mental load of parenthood. I’m so glad you’re here.
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A Retreat Worth Putting on Your Calendar
Top Shelf is a three-day retreat for ambitious women in tech and Go-To-Market, designed to give us something most of us rarely make time for: a real reset.
I worked with co-founder Jennifer Ortegon early in our careers and I’ve loved watching her make her way in tech. She lights up every room she enters and has been a mentor to me for years.
That’s why I’m excited to share Top Shelf Retreat with you. The agenda features meaningful conversations with incredible women, career and personal brand sessions, sound bath, color analysis, Texas wine country, and plenty of space to step away from the noise and think about what’s next.
If you’ve been craving a reset, and a room full of women who get it, take a look at Top Shelf.