Mel Carr didn't set out to build a networking organization. She published her first book collaboration in 2022, checked every box her publisher handed her, hit international bestseller, and then watched everyone scatter. A year later she was still missing her people. So she rebuilt the whole thing around community: authors from one city, meeting on Zoom every two weeks, gathering in person for a photo shoot, then launching the book three separate times so each woman gets three chances to be seen. Nine books later, Six-Figure Chicks has more than 140 authors, four volumes out of Arizona, three out of Houston, and a run of new cities ahead including Virginia, Boston, Las Vegas and Maui, with Canada next year. Mel walks us through how the name came to her, how a business coach asking "how much do you want to make this year?" changed what she thought was possible, and why she keeps giving her knowledge away for free.

The through line is vulnerability, and Mel is candid about how long it took her to practice it. She didn't tell anyone publicly that she signed herself out of high school at 15 until a year or two ago, because she was afraid people would decide she wasn't smart enough to run a company. It was reading the other authors' raw stories that gave her permission to tell her own. That same instinct led her to found Her Write to Rise, a nonprofit connecting the authors with the next generation through monthly virtual Fishbowl sessions and in-person mentorship on college campuses, built around a simple message: it's okay to ask for help. We also get into what it means to receive help once you've asked, why sharing the hard parts does more good than sharing the polished ones, and what each of us would tell our 15-year-old selves.

Everybody says they're behind on AI. Behind what, exactly? That's the question at the center of our conversation with Susan Sanders, back on the podcast after her first visit during COVID. Susan has spent three years working almost exclusively on AI adoption inside organizations. What she sees is a lot of companies winning a race that looks like running on a treadmill. They're burning calories. They can see their pace. They're still standing in the same gym. She unpacks the difference between usage and adoption, and why counting how many times someone opens ChatGPT tells you almost nothing. AI is like electricity, she says. It offers the potential for value, not inherent value. Until you turn on the light switch, you don't have light.

We also get honest about what this is costing people. Susan names the fear of becoming obsolete. She names the employees working longer hours to learn AI on top of the job they already have. And the leaders who say AI won't take your job, right before ten thousand layoffs. But there's real opportunity here too. She points to IKEA, which retrained an entire customer support team into interior designers and built a new revenue line. And to a nonprofit training service dogs for veterans, where saved admin time means more humans in the field doing work no robot can do. Her framing sticks with us. Just because you can doesn't mean you should. Listen in as we talk about breaking the AI spell, redesigning work instead of layering AI onto it, and what it might look like to change the racing course altogether.

We sit down with Elycia Cook, CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters Colorado, to get real about what mentoring is and what it is not, from safety and matching to the slow work of earning trust. We also dig into “mentor life,” the ripple effect from one consistent relationship, and why showing up beats being perfect every time.

• Elycia’s personal story of growing up with adversity and being shaped by mentors

• Mentoring as igniting potential through access, opportunity, and social capital

• What Big Brothers Big Sisters Colorado looks for in Littles and Bigs

• How matchmaking works, why safety checks are strict, and what happens when a match is not the right fit

• The mac and cheese story as a lesson in patience, consistency, and trust-building

• How mentoring transforms Bigs too, including empathy, relationships, and community connection

• The biggest myths that stop people from volunteering, including time, age, and fear

• How to support the mission through volunteering, advocacy, career talks, and donations

If this conversation sparked something in you, share it with a friend, subscribe, and leave a review. Then take one step: visit biglittlecolorado.org to volunteer or donate, and tell us what kind of mentor you want to be.

Website: https://biglittlecolorado.org/events/big-little-gala/