Marianne Chance

08/14/2026

And the hero is Ted

I envisioned this post being a bit of a spitfire.

Then I watched the new episode of Ted Lasso. By the time the end credits rolled, I was a misty-eyed mess as I realized the bumbling coach from Kansas was the hero we women need.

To think that men and women are equal in the workplace means one of two things: you’re uneducated, or you’re not paying attention.

Underpaid, under-recognized, and underrepresented in the room where it happens, I long for men to become the heroes women need. And as of now, the heroes seem to be hard to find.

So what does heroism look like?

Well, it looks like Ted Lasso in season four. He’s recently become the head coach of the Richmond Women’s team.

Three significant events happen in the show that are noteworthy.

First, he fights for equal resources for equal work. The women’s locker room was madness. It was small, had one shower, and the players had to move their belongings in and out each night. He and Keeley partnered up and found another locker room for the women’s team. One that was equal to the men’s team.

In the workplace, this looks like equal pay, equal budgets, equal speaking time in meetings, and equal representation at the leadership table. It’s equal access to mentoring, equal advocacy, and equal career-advancing opportunities.

If men have access to it, women should too.

Next, he recognizes Coach Chilton for her specific talents. Coach Alice Chilton was passed over for the head coach job. It was given to Ted. She gives her notice and prepares a dossier on all the players to help Lasso understand the team.

And at the end of the show, Ted, in a speech that will make almost anyone cry, specifically acknowledges all that she brings to the team. He notes the heart he witnessed when a player was injured. He speaks of her brilliance in putting together the dossier. And most importantly, he recognizes that he got the job over her, wishes her the very best, and then asks if, until the right opportunity comes along, she will stay and help him coach his new team.

The last sentence leads us to the most impactful part of the show. He offers her the position that she earned. He didn’t look at other coaches. He didn’t ask 700 people to give their opinions. He didn’t keep his options open in case someone better came along.

He gave her the position she earned.

I’ve absolutely had incredible support from male bosses during my career. And I’ve also experienced the heartbreak that comes when you’re standing outside the room where the good ol’ boys club meets.

Men, you have the chance to be the hero we need you to be. The only question is, are you gonna be strong, fast, and fresh for the fight? Are you going to be the Superman we need you to be?

08/07/2026

Men: 35% • Women: 90%

Share who say women are judged more critically as executives. In 2006, men and women agreed almost exactly.
-Harvard Business Review, 2026

69¢

What women executives earn for every dollar male executives earn. This is down from 72¢ last year.
- Payscale, 2026 Gender Pay Gap Report

$280K vs. $400K

What an AI model told the same résumé to ask for as a woman, second number as a man.
- Technical University of Würzburg-Schweinfurt, 2025

2.3%

Share of global venture capital that went to all-women founding teams. This is despite outperforming male-founded companies on returns.
- Founders Forum Group / PitchBook

Silence isn’t the same as solved.

Just because we don’t talk about equity in the workplace anymore doesn’t mean we have it.

The Work Warrior page will be posting a video once a month, on the hard and human side of leadership. First video drops Friday, August 14th.

You. Me. Us. Let’s talk about this together.

06/10/2026

It was a skating rink in Kansas City.
Four people, total, showed up.
My team had raised money for the AIDS Walk.

Ashleigh asked if she could use it for a team skating party.

I said yes. I made the call.

And when nobody showed up, I lost my sh*t.

My goal in that follow-up conversation was simple: make sure she understood what a mess she made of things.

Well, the words of the reckless pierce like swords. In that moment, I used my power to crush, instead of empower.

The part that still hurts like a gut punch: I said yes. Really, this was 100% mine to own.
It wasn't her fault. It was mine.

And if I had been able to practice that conversation before it happened, someone would have stopped me cold. They would have said: this one starts with you, Marianne. Knock it off.

World, let me introduce you to Evie. She is my someone, and is yours too.

She is not a chatbot. She is not a script generator. She is not something someone built on a Tuesday afternoon.
She is me. I took weeks to build her, and she was tested obsessively. Her foundation is built on the principles of psychological safety, because that is the only foundation worth building on.
In roleplay, she draws on 16 personality profiles to accurately represent the real person sitting across the table from you. She escalates. She pushes back. She gets defensive because your employees do too (she can be really difficult :))
She has a toxic team member mode, for when the situation is genuinely hard, and she is explicitly designed not to retraumatize you in the process.
She will catch your feels before they catch you. She will tell you when the conversation you think you need to have isn't actually the right one. She will debrief you after, specifically, honestly, without judgment.
She is me. Without needing me in the room.

Evie is for every conversation you've been avoiding.
The feedback you keep postponing. The coworker who makes everything harder. The team member that you don't know how to confront. The boss you need to push back on. The raise you deserve but haven't asked for.
She will practice with you. Push back at you… and debrief with you honestly.

Every direction. Every conversation. No judgment.
You don't get a redo in real life. Evie is as close as it gets.

I'm sorry, Ashleigh. You deserved better. This is me doing better.
You. Me. Us. Let's go on this endeavour together.

You wanna get some great training AND try out Evie? Mark your calendars! June 29th, July 9th and July 17th. Three free Learn A Lattes. Three free weeks of Evie. More on that later.

05/26/2026

Watch this clip. I'll wait.

Below is a true story overheard on one of my many training road trips.

The manager finally, finally, finally had the conversation.

With the coolness of a cucumber, she sat down, looked her employee in the eye, and said, "We've had a few conversations in the past about your performance. I appreciate everything you've given to this role, and I wish you the best of luck in the future."

She felt like a rockstar. She was professional. Kind. Clear(ish).

The employee showed up the next morning, coffee in hand, ready to work.

Whether it's a coaching chat, performance management, or a final hard conversation before termination, every word matters. Make sure Dina knows there's no water, no bridge 😂.

Practice until the words in your head match the words that come out.

That's exactly what Evie is for. Link in bio.

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

04/19/2026

♠ A Game of Chance

This week's guest is someone I get to call my boss, and I mean that in the best possible way.

Dr. Becky Achen is the Program Director for Professional Performance at the University of Kansas, a marketing consultant, a former personal trainer, and someone who has built a career by following curiosity instead of a straight line. Her story is one of the most honest and relatable ones we have had on this podcast.
We talked about what servant leadership looks like when it is not just a buzzword, why vulnerability in professional spaces builds stronger teams and classrooms than any policy ever could, how to walk into a networking event feeling like you belong there even when you do not yet, and what small business owners and solopreneurs should actually be doing with AI right now.

One thing Becky said that I keep coming back to: the goal with AI is not just to replace the work you were already doing. It is finally time to get to the list of things you never had time for.

If you have been putting off experimenting with these tools because you are not sure where to start, or because it feels like giving something up, this conversation is going to shift that for you.

04/15/2026

This week's episode of A Game of Chance is one I think a lot of you are going to feel in your chest.

Dr. Meghan Davidson joined me to talk about female friendships and why, especially in this season of life, they are not optional. We are in the middle of a loneliness epidemic, and the connections we keep putting off are the ones that quite literally affect our health, our resilience, and our sense of self.
We covered how to find new friendships if you feel like you are starting over, what gets in the way of the ones we already have, how to tell when you have outgrown a friendship versus when it just needs some attention, and why even a seven-minute phone call is worth more than you think.

This conversation reminded me that the people we love deserve more than a text we keep drafting and never send. I hope it does the same for you.

04/01/2026

New episode alert... and this one hit close to home for me.

This week I am joined by my good friend Randy Hawthorne and we are talking about the third place. The concept is simple: first place is home, second place is work, and the third place is where you choose to belong. No schedule, no agenda, just you showing up somewhere you feel comfortable.

Here is what got me, though. We do not realize how lonely we actually are. We have our friends, we have our phones, we have everything at our fingertips. And somehow we are more isolated than ever.

Randy and I talked about how to find your third place, why shared experiences matter more than we give them credit for, and what it actually looks like to set personal goals around community. We even got into AI, live theater, and why the kids are going back to the mall.

Come hang out with us! A new episode of A Game of Chance is out now.

03/26/2026

A Game of Chance just dropped a new episode and this one is a conversation worth having right now.

I sat down with my dear friend Elizabeth Buckner, pastor, theologian, and the kind of person who will tell you the honest truth with kindness and a little humor, to talk about rest. Not sleep. Not self-care as a buzzword. Actual rest.

Elizabeth introduces seven types of rest and gives real, practical examples of each: how she protects her emotional energy after hard days, why sensory rest can be as simple as turning off the overhead lights, and what social rest actually looks like when you are the person that everyone leans on.

She also shares the story of S'mores Club, which began on $11 in food stamps, a fire pit, and a Facebook post, and became a community that changed her life during one of its hardest seasons. If you listen to nothing else, listen to that part.

And for the business owners in the room: there is a moment in this episode where the two of them talk about how we reflexively try to monetize every creative thing we learn to do, and how that might be costing us the very rest we need.

It is a good one. Give it a listen and share it with someone who needs permission to slow down.