Coffee still too hot to drink, I opened my laptop and stared blankly at my massive to do list. I read line after line of operational tasks, feeling totally spent before the day even started.

I was reviewing Chapter Lead program requests while simultaneously chasing down contract payment statuses and finalizing my content edits for Season 17 partner decks. Juggling many balls is something I've become accustomed to, but recently, it’s taken its toll on me.

I convinced myself that the reason I was exhausted was because I was teaching too much. Maybe I just need to reduce our class load, I thought. But when I hopped on the first Season 17 class, I immediately felt energized, and I was totally in flow. The students loved it. They wanted the connection, to me and to each other.

So we looked at where my time was going. The teaching wasn't burning me out at all, it was all the SheFi administration around teaching.

The things that light you up will illuminate where you need to go.

I had a Deep Knowing that I needed to put even more of my energy into teaching. So we ruthlessly cut or automated my operational workload.

I don't believe in grinding anymore (I used to). Society tells us to power through work that drains us because we think that is what being a successful founder or professional requires. But your body is a source of truth. When a task zaps your life force, it is a signal. In our household we like to say energy is scarcer than time.

Look at your to do list this week, and try to embody your work. Does it light you up? Keep it. If it drains you, drop it.

Your energy is never wrong.

Maggie

900 Women Joined Us Live for Season 17 Day 1 💜

Last week, we kicked off SheFi Season 17 with 900 women joining us live from around the world. Seeing hundreds of women show up, ready to learn, build, and support one another reminded me exactly why we do this.

A huge thank you to our Season 17 partners: Solana, Phantom, RootstockCollective, and Decentraland.

The Frontier Technology News — SheFi Edition 🏇

• The biggest fight in AI right now is whether Washington should restrict open-weight models, the kind anyone can download and run for free. Nvidia's Jensen Huang rallied around 50 companies, including Meta, Microsoft, Google, and OpenAI, behind an open letter urging the government not to, largely in response to a possible ban on cheap, powerful Chinese models. One major lab refused to sign: Anthropic. Its CEO Dario Amodei said he doesn't want to ban open models either. He wants the same safety testing applied to every sufficiently capable model, and the most advanced chips kept away from authoritarian governments.

• Midjourney, one of the best-known AI image generators, made its first-ever acquisition, and it's a surprising one: Co-Star, the astrology app that's lived on young women's phones for years. Co-Star has around 4.3 million monthly users and a genuine daily habit built around personalized horoscopes, which is exactly what Midjourney lacks. Midjourney runs inside Discord with no app of its own, so it's buying its way to a consumer product and the team behind it, led by founder Banu Guler. As AI image tools start to blur together, distribution is the real prize, and Midjourney just bought a daily habit with millions of people already inside it.

• Lilian Weng, a co-founder of Mira Murati's AI lab Thinking Machines, resigned this week, and her goodbye note was strikingly honest. She wrote that she'd been sick more in the past seven months than in any other stretch of her life, and that the pace of a startup had worn her down to where she couldn't give the job the 100% she felt it deserved. She left just days after the lab shipped its first model, and ended her message with the line that doubles as the company's whole philosophy: the future worth building is human. Her exit joins a quiet run of AI leaders, including OpenAI's Fidji Simo, stepping back for their health this year, a sign that the pace of the AI race is starting to cost the people building it.

SheFi Global Events 🌎

Stay connected with SheFi around the world. From meetups and summits to workshops and special partner events, this is where you’ll find the can’t-miss gatherings happening across our global community.

08/01 Istanbul: Flow with Us 🌀 | Sahilde Yoga: RSVP here

SheFi Turkey invites you to our yoga event where we will welcome August and relax together with our member Damla Açıkada.

08/02 Jaipur: Road To Devcon – Women For Web3: RSVP here

Join us for Road to Devcon VIII India (Jaipur chapter) – Women in Web3 Edition, a curated gathering of Women and non-binary folks, celebrating diversity in the Ethereum ecosystem as we build momentum toward Devcon VIII in Mumbai this November.

Crypto Events 🌎

Going to ETHCC, Token2049 or Devcon? Join our Global Events Telegram Chat: https://t.me/shefisummit

• 07/30 California: BASS 🌲 Stanford Blockchain 2026: RSVP here

• 08/04 Miami: DialedIn Miami | A CreateHER Fest Tech Series: RSVP here

• 09/10-19 NYC: UN Blockchain Week Conference 2026: RSVP here

• 10/08 San Francisco: InTheRoom: Trust, Presence & Connection - #SFTechWeek: RSVP here

• 11/17-18 Florida: EthWomen Florida: RSVP here

• Devcon 8 India Volunteer Application Form: Apply here

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