Power, Minnesota, and the Women Already in the Room

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, and I don't think we've named it out loud.

The work that used to be invisible is becoming visible. Not in a TED talk way. In a daily-life way. The labor of the home, of the neighborhood, of the community. The women with the group text that organizes meals when someone is sick. The women who remember every birthday on the block. The mothers who show up to the school board meeting and the daily patrols. The aunties, the grandmothers, the chosen matriarchs and friends who have been holding things together. This is the real infrastructure of how communities actually run. It has been surfacing for months. It hasn't stopped surfacing.

I notice it in conversations over coffee, mocktails, and cocktails. I notice it in the rooms I work in, in the rooms I move through, in the RSP rooms we have all been in together. I notice it when I'm talking to women I've known for fifteen years, hearing them say things out loud that they used to only think.

I don't think this is an accident. I think it's the inevitable response to what this state has been through. Minnesotans, in the last five years, have been asked to carry a lot. The pandemic. George Floyd's murder and everything that did and didn't happen after. A presidential campaign that parked itself on our doorstep and pulled us into the spotlight. Annunciation. The Hortman family. Metro Surge and the ongoing federal story that keeps trying to roll back what this state has spent decades building.

None of this is background. All of it comes with us at every moment and in every room. And under all of it, 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. We have been moving, pivoting, building, leading, rethinking for years. We are high-capacity, high-functioning, high-achieving, and high-productivity. We aren't tired from the work. We are tired from the contortion the work requires.

Tired from being told, for thirty years, that our power comes from leaning in harder, networking more, finding our voice, breaking the ceiling, empowering ourselves, and building our personal brand. Most of the women I know have done all of it. What we got back was burnout, political backsliding, and constantly pulling from our reserves to perform a resilience we no longer feel. 

Which is why I want to talk about power with you, specifically. 

The conversation about women and power in Minnesota right now is a case study. Not Chicago. Not New York. Not LA. Not some national summit in a hotel ballroom. Only here. Only us. Only women who have lived through what this state has lived through, in the specific civic fabric Minnesota has.

The women who show up to the conversation will shape what the conversation is and I want to be in that conversation with you. I want the conversation to be sharper because of who's in the room. I want the record of what Minnesota women know about power in 2026 to exist, because it doesn't yet, and it should.

The Power Pillar will take shape over four key events across 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 the first event, we will be sending a survey. The questions are simple but uncomfortable. What story were you told about powerful women growing up? How often does the power you exercise go unregistered? What is this current moment doing to your relationship with your power?

You don't have to be planning to come on June 11. You don't have to have your story about power figured out. You just have to be willing to answer a handful of questions honestly. During the first Power event, the aggregate answers come back to the room. Anonymous, and shaped into the conversation only we can have.

So take it when it lands in your inbox. Forward it to the women in your life who you think should take it. The conversation gets shaped by who shows up for it, and we want every one of you in it.

This is also the first piece in a Power series I'll publish across my ISBU (I Said Buckle Up) Substack and on RSP channels. Some pieces will be long. Most will be short. A few will be video interviews. I'm not going to use your inbox carelessly. But I am going to use it.

Before I close, I want you to know what I believe. You are not broken. You are not the unit of work. The relationship between you and power is the unit of work.

And that relationship is structural, political, civic, somatic, and, critically, shared.

The women of this state have more to say to each other, and the world, about power than we're currently saying. That is the driving force behind the RSP Power Pillar.

We will clear the ground so you can stand on what you already are. Putting down what was never yours to carry, so you can move with power only you can wield.

This year, I'm hosting rooms and holding spaces where we do just that.

Join me.

— Lauren