Power, Minnesota, and the Women Already Connected

Introducing Lauren Buckley, RSP Power Pillar Lead

Over the next four to six weeks you’ll meet the leaders of each RSP pillar. The first is POWER.

What follows are words on Power. In Lauren's voice and with our nod and notion. A nod from RSP to say Power is something we have in us, but must also step into. And this year the women who will teach you to step in, take action, challenge yourself, consider different and new (not because you haven’t thought about 'other things' before but because now more than ever we've arrived at the time to act) are those who have been there, done that.

And so here we are. At the time to begin. To start what you’re been surmising. To consider doing the thing: 1) you’re afraid to admit 2) you’re thinking of doing or 3) you simply lack the pathway map forward. And hear this next part loud and clear. It’s just fine. Fine that you have waited til now. But now IS the time. You’re not getting any younger girl and you sure as hell are already wise as you need to be. So let’s get on with it. With Lauren. With one another. With Power. With RSP.

A word (or three) about Power, from Lauren . . .

Something has been happening in this state for a while now.

The work that used to be invisible is becoming visible. Not in a TED talk way. In a daily-life way. The group text organizing meals, swaps, and fundraisers. The women who remember every birthday on the block. The mother's at the school board meetings. The signal for daily patrols and posts on mutual aid. The aunties, grandmothers, friends, and chosen matriarchs holding things together. This is the real infrastructure that actually runs our communities. It is surfacing. Has been for months. Hasn’t stopped.

I don’t know about you, but I notice it over coffee and over cocktails. In the rooms I work, live, and play in. In the RSP rooms we’ve been in together. I notice it when I’m talking to women I’ve known for decades, saying things out loud instead of just thinking them.

This isn’t an accident. It’s the inevitable response to what this state has we’ve been through. It's the inevitable response to what this state has been through. Women with a familial, personal, professional, historical, RSP, or other connection to this state have been asked to carry a lot in the last five years. The pandemic. George Floyd. Annunciation. The Hortman family. A presidential campaign that parked itself on our doorstep. Metro Surge and the federal story that keeps trying to roll back what this state has spent decades building.

None of it is in the background. All of it is carried with us, and under it all, the thing that has been true the whole time keeps getting truer.

Women are the ones moving the big and small things, so everything else keeps moving.

And a lot of us are tired in a very specific way.

Tired from being told, for decades, that the answer is to lean in harder, network more, find our voice, break the ceiling, empower ourselves and empower our personal brand. Most of the women I know have done it all, and all we’ve gotten is burnt out, political backsliding, and a resilience that is harder and harder to access.

There is a conversation about power only women connected to this place can have. And we’re going to have it. Here. Now. Us. I want the record of what we know and feel about power in 2026 to exist, because it doesn’t yet. And it should.

That is what the Power Pillar is about this year. It will take shape across four events over the next twelve months. Pop-ups and collaborations with other RSP pillar leads in between. Written and video content running throughout. The first event is: Thursday, June 11, 2026. Mark your calendars.

Before we gather, you’ll get a survey. The questions are simple and uncomfortable. What story were you told about powerful women growing up?

How did your lineage impact your understanding of power? What is this current moment doing to your relationship with your power? You don’t have to have your story about power figured out. You just have to answer honestly. In June, the aggregate answers come back to the room, and you are going to want to be there. Anonymous, and built for the kind of conversation only this community can have. Take it when it lands. Send it to every woman you know who should be in this conversation.

Before I close, I want you to know what I believe. The relationship between you and power is structural, political, civic, somatic, but most importantly, shared.

This is the first piece in a Power series I’ll publish across my Substack, ISBU (I Said Buckle Up), and on RSP’s channels. Some long. Most short. A few videos. I won’t use your inbox carelessly. But I am going to use it.

Together, we will write our stories about power. This is the place.

Join us.

— Lauren