We’re thrilled to kick off our newest blog feature: the Weak Ties/Strong Bonds Member Spotlight! First up is Melanie Ensign, Founder and CEO of Discernible. A Founding Knit member, Melanie helps security and privacy professionals transform how they communicate their mission-critical work. As the world's first communications center of excellence dedicated to security and privacy teams, Discernible solves one of their most persistent challenges: communicating their business value.

We’re officially counting down to January 7th, when the Weak Ties/Strong Bonds membership launches—and we couldn’t be more excited about what’s ahead.

This isn’t just a new chapter for us—it’s a game-changer for you and your business. We’re thrilled to share some exciting updates about what’s staying, what’s evolving, and why now is the perfect time to get involved.

As 2024 comes to a close, we’re taking a moment to reflect on everything this incredible community has accomplished together—and we couldn’t be more grateful for you. This year, with your support, we hosted 12 intimate dinners, celebrated the announcement of the Weak Ties/Strong Bonds membership, helped to generate an additional $150,000 in revenue for our members, and so much more!

We’ve been thinking a lot about the concept of “enough” lately. In a world where we’re often told that more = better, it can be hard to determine what “enough” actually looks like.

Add working for yourself into the mix, and it gets even more complicated.

Salut de Paris! We made it. We largely disconnected. We're even writing this newsletter together from a delightful cafe. And we got to experience the phenomenon that is the Era's tour in-person, and there are no words...but we're going to write some anyway.

This week we're headed to Paris to celebrate Lauren's birthday, But taking time off as a business owner or freelancer brings up a bunch of stuff. It can be hard to log off without being consumed by guilt or worry. (Laura didn't take a real vacation for the first 5 years of solopreneurship 😬 ) So this week we’re digging into the work-leisure equation and how to actually disengage - and why your business will be better for it.

Welcome to the first issue of Ties That Bind, the weekly newsletter (now in blog form) from Weak Ties/Strong Bonds. So, what can you expect from Ties That Bind each week? 🗓️ First access to upcoming WT/SB events, 🗞️ content on entrepreneurship and women's issues that caught our attention, 💁‍♀️ stories from the amazing members of this community, and 😍 stuff we're loving each week. It should be fun.