Our aim at Athena is to give you your time back so you can spend it in the ways that matter most.

In each issue of our newsletter you’ll get unique delegation tips and leadership inspiration.

Oprah on First Drafts

"What do I know for sure?"

That single query became Oprah's most beloved column in O Magazine, running for over 14 years.

Her secret to keeping it authentic while producing it monthly? A brutally simple system:

Oprah would sit down with just pen and paper. Raw thoughts flowed directly onto the page. Stream of consciousness. Pure reflection.

Whatever emerged around that month's single lesson or insight.

Her assistant would transcribe these handwritten pages, fixing only the most basic grammar. Nothing more. The messy brilliance stayed intact.

Most writers would polish endlessly. Add clever transitions, smooth rough edges.

Oprah did the opposite. She trusted that first draft energy.

The column became her magazine's most popular feature precisely because it felt like Oprah talking directly to you. Like finding her private journal.

This radical restraint works because overthinking kills authenticity.

Your best thinking might already exist in your first draft. Stop polishing away its power.

To be liked, we must like

In We Can Do Hard Things, Glennon Doyle recalls visiting a cat shelter with her kids.

They sat in a room full of kittens. Tiny, purring chaos. A little orange one walked straight up to her daughter. A gray one curled against her son. A calico nestled into her lap.

On the car ride home, she asked, "Which cat did you like best?"

Each child named the cat that had approached them first.

Glennon wrote:

"Oh, we each liked the one best who first liked us best."

Then she reflected:

"If we want to be liked, we have to like. That's it. Nobody leaves a party saying, 'My favorite person was that cool, aloof one.' It's the person who approaches and shows interest in us."

"I really, really think the secret to being loved is to love. And the secret to being interesting is to be interested. And the secret to having a friend is being a friend. But that's a risk, right? To openly like someone? To admit, 'I like you. I'd like to spend time with you' is to risk rejection. It's vulnerable. It's brave."

At Athena, Executive Coach Mike Tamayo sees this same truth play out in leadership. Leaders want loyalty, trust, and engagement. But the way they try to earn it often backfires.

They lean on their title, expecting respect to come automatically.

They hold themselves at a distance, mistaking aloofness for strength.

Or they wait for their teams to go first—to prove commitment before offering their own.

As a result, people feel unseen.

Connection starts with initiative. The kittens who walked up first were the ones everyone remembered. People are drawn to those who notice, like, and engage first.

For leaders, the same holds: the secret to loyalty is showing loyalty, to engagement is engaging, and to trust is being brave enough to go first.