Kelly has a fun conversation with longtime Saturday Night Live producer Lindsay Shookus about her experiences at the legendary comedy show as well as her current work co leading the platform and networking community "Woman Work F***ing Hard."

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What led you to start this new initiative after you left your longtime job at Saturday Night Live?

“I had this realization in my late 30’s wondering why aren't women a little bit better at saying our name, saying someone else's name in the room, or advocating for somebody else. When you look at all the stats of how few female founded businesses get funding, and how hard it is to rise into a C-level leadership role. I mean, there's a million things that we're up against. Why aren't we better about helping each other when we get to those positions? And so we we created this about 5 or 6 years ago with the idea of trying to educate and empower women to to be better at advocating for each other and to realize how much we have in our brains in our hearts to help each other.”

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Stephen Colbert often quotes the Second City teacher Rick Thomas who says, “You need to fall into the crack in the game.” And I think that’s what your embracing here.

"You don't really have to grow that much in the great times, right? I mean, you can, but you don't have to. You don't have to. And so, it's like going through the crack and then having to go back in hindsight and be like, what am I getting from this? It's a shame if you go through the muck and then you can't find the lesson and the thing to put on and wear throughout your life because you went through it. You went through the hard thing you got through it. You survived. So now, what is the nugget that's going to make your life better. And so now, I'm just like a nugget collector. I've Got this thing and it's hard.”

You’ve also talked about the importance of mindfulness for those of us working in leadership roles.

“We don't give ourselves space. We don't give ourselves stillness. It's a world of just feeding yourself something. So, you're not really sitting right? I mean, I'm a big believer that mindfulness actually makes you a better leader. I don't care what line of work you're in, I don't care where you're working, mindfulness actually makes you better.”

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Photo Credit: Rosalind O’Connor