I came into this episode fucking roaring. 🦁🔥 I’m pissed off, I’m hurt, I’m disappointed, and I’m exhausted by something I’m calling human fraud: that gap between who people tell us they are and who we actually experience them to be.

Tell me you’re family? Show me when it’s inconvenient. Tell me your kid comes first? Show me when parenting screws up your plans. Tell me you believe in accountability? Show me when you’re the one who fucked up. Tell me you’re a leader? Great. I don’t need another LinkedIn post or PowerPoint with somebody climbing a fucking mountain. Show me who you are when someone challenges you, knows more than you, or tells you something your ego really doesn’t want to hear. Because here’s what I’ve realized: character gets expensive. Integrity can cost you time, money, convenience, comfort, ego and sometimes the satisfaction of being right. That’s when we find out who the fuck we really are.

I go there in this one. Family. Co-parenting. Corporate America. Leadership. AI. Ego. The invisible load so many parents carry while somebody else occasionally shows up for the ribbon cutting. 😏 And yes, apparently some of us have fucking QuickBooks for all the emotional receipts we’ve collected along the way.

But then this episode did something I wasn’t necessarily planning for: it turned the mirror back on me. Because I’m hurt right now, and when I’m hurt, I see things through hurt. That doesn’t erase what somebody else did. It doesn’t make shitty behavior okay. But if I’m demanding accountability from everybody else, then Lori has to own her fucking shit too.

That brought me to the line that matters most: I don’t want somebody else’s lack of integrity to cost me mine. Fuck. Maybe that’s the whole lesson.

I don’t need perfect people. I fucking love imperfect people. Give me messy. Give me “I don’t know.” Give me “I was wrong.” Give me “I got scared.” Give me “I handled that like an asshole.” What I’m done with is the performance. I want your words and your behavior to fucking recognize each other.

🎙️ So here’s my challenge: listen before you decide who you think this episode is about. And before you send it to the ex, boss, parent, sibling, friend or whoever immediately popped into your head, ask yourself the harder fucking question: Where did I hear myself? Then do something about it. And if this conversation hits you somewhere uncomfortable, share it with someone brave enough to look in the mirror with you.

#StorytimeWithLori #HumanFraud #Authenticity #Accountability #Integrity #Leadership #RealTalk #OwnYourShit #PersonalGrowth #Podcasting