staceybooks

There’s something about 2:00 a.m. that turns my brain into a full-scale strategy lab. All day long I’m juggling meetings, staff questions, grant requirements, employer partnerships, budgets, compliance…you name it. My brain is running like a computer with way too many tabs open. But sometime around 2 a.m., the world finally goes quiet. No emails.…

Guess what time it is. 2:43 am. Not 2:40. Not 2:45. Exactly 2:43 am. And my ADHD brain has officially clocked in for its shift. Because apparently the brain that refuses to function at 3:00 pm during a normal meeting suddenly becomes a Fortune 500 strategy consultant at 2:43 in the morning. I woke up…

I’m not entirely sure why I’m writing this. There’s no lesson. No leadership insight. No “five steps to improve your life.” No call to action. Honestly, I’m just here. Sometimes writing is like walking into the kitchen, opening the refrigerator, staring for a minute, and then closing it again. You didn’t get anything. You weren’t…

We keep talking about second chance hiring. It’s on conference stages. It’s in corporate ESG reports. It’s in LinkedIn posts with bold commitments and beautiful graphics. There are coalitions forming. Pledges being signed. Roundtables happening. Panels discussing “inclusive talent pipelines.” And yet… The offer letter disappears the moment the background check comes back. So what’s…

It all began at exactly 7:30 PM – the moment I said, “Okay boys, bedtime.” That was the trigger. The three-year-old immediately clutched his chest like I had shut off the oxygen supply. “Hassy…I thirsty.” Sir. You were perfectly hydrated at 7:29. The thirst appeared the moment pajamas entered the room. Beverage Negotiations I offered…

It’s 10:00 pm. The house is quiet. The dogs are asleep. The husband is apparently asleep because he hasn’t texted back. And my brain? My brain just scheduled a national expansion plan. Welcome to the nightly episode of “How Many Thoughts Can Stacey Have in 60 Seconds?” One minute I’m planning how to scale into…

Let’s say the quiet part out loud. Why NOT hire a Persevere graduate? Maybe it’s fear. What if they reoffend? What if my clients find out? What if this becomes a liability? What if I’m taking on risk? Those are real questions. But here’s what’s also real. Graduates of Persevere complete a structured, disciplined, technology-driven…

There is a very specific kind of confusion that only happens at 3:00 am. It is dark. It is quiet. The world is asleep. And yet my brain is clocking in for its most productive shift. So tell me, is 3:00 am early morning or late night? Because my ADHD brain cannot decide. If it’s…

Look at the Skills, Not the Label There is a moment in every interview when a résumé stops being paper and starts becoming a person. For justice impacted individuals, that moment often carries more weight than it should. Because before you see their certifications, their work ethic, or their grit, there is a silent label…

There is something no one explains about turning fifty. You do not suddenly feel settled. You do not suddenly feel finished. You do not suddenly feel like you have arrived. You feel reflective. You start lining up the decades and realizing how much they carried. At 20, I was building a family. At 30, I…